June Screenings

NATURAL LIGHT
TERMÉSZETES FÉNY

• Director: Dénes Nagy
• HUNGARY, LATVIA, FRANCE, GERMANY / 2021 / DCP / Colour / 103’ / Hungarian; Turkish s.t.

• Screenplay: Dénes Nagy
• Original Work: Pál Závada
• Director of Photography: Tamás Dobos
• Editing: Nicolas Rumpl
• Cast: Ferenc Szabó, Tamás Garbacz, László Bajkó, Gyula Franczia, Ernő Stuhl, Gyula Szilágyi, Mareks Lapeskis, Krisztián Kozó
• Producer: Sára László, Marcell Gerő, Inese Boka-Grūbe, Caroline Piras, Melanie Blocksdorf
• Production Co.: Campfilm
• World Sales: Luxbox

This film is screened within the Galas section.

Theme Sponsor

2021 Berlin Best Director

Based on Pál Závada’s novel, Natural Light is not just a war movie; it tells of a descent into further darkness by men who face constant moral dilemmas of guilt and conscience. Premiering in competition at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival, the film is set during World War II, in the Hungarian-occupied Soviet territory. A simple Hungarian farmer, István is part of a special unit tasked with travelling from village to village looking for partisan groups in the icy marshland. His company falls under enemy fire, and their commander is killed. He now has to overcome his fears and take command of the unit as he is dragged into a chaos that he cannot control, bound to have horrific consequences. “We think that we have acquired a clear judgment about things around us,” director Nagy says in Variety magazine, “we believe that we know what’s our task in life. The film wants to question this image of ourselves.”

This film is screened with the generous support of the Hungarian Culture Center.

This film was a Meetings on the Bridge participant.