12/05/2015 - Son of Saul by László Nemes is in competition, The Round-Up by Miklos Jancso is in Cannes Classics, and there is a tantalising selection of titles in the market

Hungarian film production will benefit from an impressive and well-focused presence at the 68th Cannes Film Festival and the Film Market, which will get under way tomorrow on the Croisette. Leading the pack is Son of Saul [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: László Nemes
interview: László Rajk
film profile], the feature debut by László Nemes (read the article), which will be having its world premiere in official competition on Friday 15 May. Produced by Laokoon Filmgroup, with backing from the Hungarian National Film Fund, among other sources, the title is being sold abroad by French agent Films Distribution and will be released in Hungarian theatres on 11 June, courtesy of Mozinet.

Also featuring on the festival’s programme is The Round-Up by maestro Miklos Jancso (1965), a film that was in competition at Cannes in 1966. A restored copy of the movie will be screened in Cannes Classics.

At the market, the international sales division of the Hungarian National Film Fund will carry on pre-selling Fever at Dawn by Péter Gárdos (read the article), which tells the story of a love that blossoms between two Holocaust survivors in the Swedish rehabilitation camps during autumn and winter 1945. Interestingly, the filmmaker is also bringing out a novel on the same subject, which has already been purchased by more than ten countries. 

Also set to be sold at the market is the action-comedy Argo 2 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Attila Arpa, which has been sat in the top spot at the Hungarian box office since it was released on 30 April. The film joins the character of a second-rate con man, Tibi Balog (played by Lajos Kovacs), as he is released from prison, after doing a ten-year stretch. A Japanese gang hires him to procure a Hungarian invention (the first floppy disk in existence anywhere in the world), and our hero rounds up his usual crew of incompetent accomplices to carry out an operation that goes awry, as you may have expected. And so Tibi finds himself targeted by Japanese hit men, a family of very angry Travellers and the entire Slovakian Army.

Also standing out among the other films on the line-up of the team headed by Klaudia Androsovits are Liza, the Fox-Fairy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Karoly Ujj Mészáros
film profile] by Károly Ujj Mészáros, which has been raking in awards at international festivals (having won the Grand Prix at Fantasporto and the Silver Méliès at Amsterdam – read the review and the interview with the director), and Paw by Robert Pejo, which portrays the extraordinary life of a search and rescue dog (read the article).

(Translated from French)