Children of Glory gets off to sensational start
Released October 23 by Intercom, Hungarian feature Children of Glory (Szabadság, szerelem) by Krisztina Goda is dominating the local box office.
Starring Ivan Fenyo, Kata Dobó and Sandor Csanyi, the film (see article) recounts the Soviet suppression of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in parallel to the water polo competition at the Melbourne Youth Olympics, which saw a heroic semi-final between Hungary and the USSR.
The title grossed 113m forints (€434,000) in its first week alone – quite impressive considering that The Devil Wears Prada has taken only 77m forints in three weeks and this year’s blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean 2 totalled 235m forints.
A Flashback Productions, Cinergi and C2 film, Children of Glory marks the return of producer Andrew G. Vajna to his native country and is being sold internationally by Dutch outfit Fortissimo Films.
Now in its third week and in fourth place at the box office (distribution SPI International), French/Danish animated co-production Asterix and the Vikings by directing duo Stefan Fjeldmark and Jesper Moller is also enjoying success, with a 42m forints gross.
Meanwhile, Hungarian comedy Egy bolond százat csinál from popular director Bence Gyöngyössy (distribution Hungarotop – production Európa 2000 Kft) has earned 53m forints in four weeks.
Another Hungarian film on the 1956 Revolution, Mansfeld by Andor Szilágyi, is in tenth place (see news). Released through HungariCom on September 14, the film is still on release with a 11m gross to date.
A European title doing well is Pedro Almodóvar’s Volver (see Focus), which has been in cinemas for more than 11 weeks and taken 30m forints (Budapest Film).
(Translated from French)
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.
