Short Films

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Hungarian Rhapsodies

THE FIFTH SEAL
AZ ÖTÖDIK PECSÉT

• Director: Zoltán Fábri
• HUNGARY / 1976 / DCP / Colour / 111’ / Hungarian; Turkish, English s.t.

• Screenplay: Zoltán Fábri
• Original Work: Ferenc Sánta
• Director of Photography: György Illés
• Editing: Ferencné Szécsényi
• Music: György Vukán
• Cast: Lajos Őze, László Márkus, Ferenc Bencze, Sándor Horváth, István Dégi, Gábor Nagy
• Production Co.: Mafilm, Budapest Filmstúdió
• World Sales: National Film Institute Hungary

1977 Moscow Golden Prize
1977 Berlin Golden Prize

One of the finest chamber pieces of Hungarian cinema, ‘extraordinarily beautiful,’ as praised by Onat Kutlar, who cites Zoltan Fabri as a founder of Hungarian cinema. The Fifth Seal plays out in 1944, in the darkest days of the Second World War. The film starts with a watchmaker, a book seller and a carpenter drinking in a bar with the owner, discussing whose fate they would choose if, after their death, they had the chance to be resurrected: the wealthy tyrant or the oppressed but honourable slave? Outside, the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross Party terror is in full swing while the Soviets are bombing Budapest. The next day they find themselves facing in reality exactly the issue they were discussing theoretically.

This film is screened as part of the Turkish-Hungarian Cultural Year with the kind contribution of of the Liszt Institute Hungarian Culture Center and the Hungarian National Film Institute.

This film was a Meetings on the Bridge participant.