17/09/2024 - Emőke Pál, Roland Rába, Raul Ionescu and Gábor Ferenczi are starring in the cast of the Hungarian filmmaker’s first feature, produced by Lupa Pictures

Director Ádám Freund and actress Emőke Pál on the set of Hyenas (© Kalicz M./Lupa Pictures)

Last week saw filming commence in Budapest on Hyenas, the debut feature film by Ádám Freund who was nominated for the Student Academy Award in 2017 by way of his short film, Earthly People. Stand-out names in the cast are Emőke Pál (crowned Best Actress at the 2023 Hungarian Film Awards via Heights and Depths), Roland Rába (notably well-received in Comrade Drakulich [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Márk Bodzsár
film profile]), Raul Ionescu and Gábor Ferenczi.

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Written by the director in league with Iván Szabó (Land of Storms [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adam Csaszi
film profile], The Citizen [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]),the story revolves around three hyenas, as they’re known in Budapest slang: in other words, three freelance, con-artist taxi drivers who like to overcharge. The trio make ends meet at the expense of naive passengers who need a ride from the airport to the city. Their leader, Gáborbá, is a well-respected but grumpy old man who refuses to let things go. Zsolt, meanwhile, is an overconfident, wannabe alpha male who has just taken out a massive loan on a new car to use as a taxi. Krisztián, for his part, is a youngster still living with his oppressive mom and desperately trying to become a man in the shadow of his late, ex-cabby father. After years of manoeuvring in the grey zone, their time appears to be up when their presence at the airport is called into question. And things become even more complicated when Zsolt breaks a leg following a fight with a customer and his wife, and Edit has to take over his taxi.

Hyenas is produced by Petra Iványi on behalf of Lupa Pictures and enjoys support from the Hungarian National Film Institute. Filming will last 33 days in Budapest, wrapping at the end of October, with Mátyás Gyuricza (Forest – I See You Everywhere [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) heading up photography. The film’s music will be composed by Gábor Keresztes (Preparations to Be Together For an Unknown Period of Time [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lili Horvat
interview: Natasa Stork
film profile]) while its release in Hungarian cinemas is set for 2026.

For the record, Lupa Pictures recently offered up Cat Call [+see also:
film review
interview: Rozália Szeleczki
film profile] by Rozália Szeleczki (discovered in competition in last year’s Tallin Black Nights Festival) and are currently overseeing post-production on The Origin of the World by Borbála Nagy (read our article).