04/09/2014 - Szabolcs Hajdu’s “modern western” will be unveiled on Friday in the Contemporary World Cinema section

Mirage by Szabolcs Hajdu

After enjoying considerable popularity at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2006 with White Palms [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Szabolcs Hajdu
film profile] and in the Berlinale Forum in 2010 with Bibliothèque Pascal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Szabolcs Hajdu - director
interview: Szabolcs Hajdu
film profile], tomorrow Hungarian filmmaker Szabolcs Hajdu will present his fifth feature, Mirage (read the article), as a world premiere in the Contemporary World Cinemasection of the 39th Toronto International Film Festival. With a cast that includes Ivorian actor Isaach de Bankolé, and Romanian actors Razvan Vasilescu and Orsolya Török-Illyé, the film recounts the misadventures of an African man grappling with slavery in the depths of the Hungarian countryside. Blending the spirit of the western with a mystery-tinged and dreamlike ambience until the moment when violence rears its ugly head, the feature film brings an original angle to the subjects of racism, exploitation, equality and dictatorship. According to the selectors at Toronto, it is a hybrid film, certain aspects of which are closely related to the 1960s works by Miklos Jancso, particularly the depiction of human displacement across vast swathes of countryside, like the parched plains seen in Mirage.

Produced by Andrea Taschler for Mirage Film Studio and Gabor Kovacs for FilmPartners, Mirage was co-produced by Slovakian outfit MPhfilms, Starksales INC, M&M Film, Sparks Camera and Lighting, and TV2. The Hungarian National Film Fund is handling international sales.