PRODUCTION Hungary / UK / Croatia
Tales from the Prison Cell now in post-production
- The relationship between fathers in prison and their children at home is at the core of Ábel Visky’s feature debut, a documentary being produced by Proton Cinema and sold by Taskovski Films
The shoot for the creative documentary Tales from the Prison Cell [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Ábel Visky, which kicked off two years ago, has just wrapped. This is the feature debut by the 31-year-old Romanian-born director, who studied at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest under the tutelage of Ildikó Enyedi and János Szász, and who made a name for himself with various short films, such as Playfellows and Romanian Sunrise.
Tales from the Prison Cell, the screenplay for which was written by the director himself, revolves around the relationship between fathers in prison and their children at home. In addition to the focus of presenting three incarcerated fathers, we gain an insight into the forever-altered lives of their families and children. As we become familiar with their daily lives, we witness the distance and even the closeness that grows between the inmates and their families. As a way of keeping contact, the inmates write fairy tales for their kids, which are then made into films with the children playing the lead roles. The stories convey messages that the fathers have come to see as basic truths during the course of their own lives and believe are important to pass on. Within these stories, in the freedom created by fiction, father and child can be united once again.
Produced by Eszter Gyárfás for Proton Cinema, with Viktória Petrányi serving as line producer, Tales from the Prison Cell is being co-produced by London-based outfit Taskovski Films (which will also take care of the international sales), Croatia’s Fade In and Hungary’s Arisona MPS, with backing from the Incubator programme of the Hungarian National Film Fund, the Croatian Film Fund (HAVC) and Creative Europe. The DoPs on the film were Zágon Nagy and István Kürti, and the editing will be entrusted to László Hargittai and Anna Vághy.
As a reminder, Proton Cinema has produced all of Kornél Mundruczó’s films (Pleasant Days [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Johanna [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Delta [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kornél Mundruczó
interview: Orsi Tóth
film profile], Tender Son – The Frankenstein Project [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], White God [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kornél Mundruczó
film profile] and Jupiter’s Moon [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kornél Mundruczó
film profile]), as well as For Some Inexplicable Reason [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and, more recently, Bad Poems [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Gábor Reisz, Land of Storms [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adam Csaszi
film profile] by Ádám Császi and Guerilla [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by György Mór Kárpáti, which was world-premiered at the end of January at Göteborg and is set to hit Hungarian screens on 7 March.
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