26/06/2012 - The National Film Fund has chosen a new film by this director, previously selected for both Cannes and Berlin, as one of three to receive funding

After Sticky Matters (Best First Feature at the 2002 Hungarian Film Week), Tamara (2004), White Palms (Directors’ Fortnight in 2006), Bibliothèque Pascal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Szabolcs Hajdu - director
interview: Szabolcs Hajdu
film profile] (Forum at the 2010 Berlinale), and The Gambler (still in production – read more here and here), Hungarian director Szablocs Hajdu (photo) is soon to start shooting Mirage, after receiving a € 1.04 m production grant for it from the National Film Fund. The film is to feature Orsolya Török-Illyés and Razvan Vasilescu.

Discovered at co-production forums Sarajevo Cinelink and Paris Project (read more), Mirage is to retrace the misadventures of an African footballer in a small Hungarian town. After running away from the scene of a crime he has committed, he finds refuge in a farm in the deep countryside. But soon he realises that the farm is actually a slave camp. He will have to fight for his freedom, and finally for his life.

Produced by Mirage Film Studio with Partnersfilm in Hungary, Fourth Culture Films in the United Kingdom, and MPhfilms in Slovakia, Mirage (whose overall budget is € 1.87 m) has also received support from the Slovak Audiovisual Fund.

The National Film Fund also selected Heavenly Shift by Márk Bodzsár to receive up to € 713,000. Set in the 1990s, this first feature will tell the story of a young refugee who has fled the war in the Balkans and ends up trafficking human bodies of interest to the paramedical industry, to pay for his fiancée escape the war too. Last December, the film project won an award at the Tallin Baltic Event’s co-production market. It is to be produced mainly by Unio Film, and co-produced by Sparks. Shooting should kick off at the end of August.

Finally, the National Film Fund will support documentary project Stream of Love by Ágnes Sós (production: DokuArt) and has awarded a pre-production grant to Fever at Dawn by Péter Gárdos (production: Tivoli Filminvestments).

(Translated from French)