Huge Cannes Win for White God (Fehér Isten)

As predicted, White God (Fehér Isten) by the young Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó experienced a big win at Cannes last week, taking the top award in the sidebar competition Un Certain Regard. Appropriately, the film about a canine uprising also won the Palme Dog award.

The film has been lauded by critics, who consistently compare it to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. Thematically similar, White God features packs of dogs running loose in Budapest, with the mission to overthrow society. But the horrific aspects are more than effect, as Mundruczó has serious social  themes in mind: “I always use dogs to symbolize minorities,” the director said, as reported by ABC News. “I wanted to tell this tale as a metaphor about the European fears about dealing with minorities.” At the ceremony, the film-maker also acknowledged his canine thespians. “I’m thankful for my team, and deeply, deeply thankful for all of the dogs that collaborated with us.”

In its glowing review, Daily Variety said this: “The words “release the hounds” take on vibrant new meaning in “White God,” a thrillingly strange update of the “Lassie Come Home” formula in which one lost mutt’s incredible journey to sanctuary evolves into a full-scale man-vs.-beast revolution. The sixth and best feature to date from distinctive Hungarian stylist Kornél Mundruczó (…)” The review goes on to give much deserved credit to the Hungarian technical team: “Uniformly outstanding technical credits do full justice to this complex premise, with supple, elastic lensing and editing invaluable in realizing one story world shown from two alternating vantage points,” and calls the entire production “technically masterful.”

While there is no English-language trailer yet, the Hungarian one here has limited speaking, and gives a taste of the thrilling film and Cannes winner.

PPM Film Services is a Budapest-based film company offering an inspiring and creative work atmosphere for its host of clients from around the world. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we’re charged to create, we do it with no compromise. To sign up for the PPM Hungary newsletter, have a look here.

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A Taste of Hungary (in Japan)

Every now and again we come across something new and unusual that has almost nothing to do with film but is too delectable not to pass along. In this case, we have a bright-eyed young Japanese food blogger trying all kinds of Hungarian food that an accommodating Hungarian sent to her to review on her video blog Emma Eats. Emma has been eating her way around the nations of the world, tasting snacks from places like Poland and Turkey, before taking on these Hungarian packaged goods. We have to respect her for trying to pronounce the products she is sampling, and for being expressive about her reactions, which range from delight to surprise. It’s always fun watching somebody be introduced to something so familiar to you and approach it with a new interpretation.

Unfortunately, due to postal restrictions, she is not able to sample gulyás soup or everybody’s favorite sweet: túró rudi. We hereby invite Emma to Hungary, and to bring some of Japan with her.

PPM Film Services is a Budapest-based film company offering an inspiring and creative work atmosphere for its host of clients from around the world. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we’re charged to create, we do it with no compromise. To sign up for the PPM Hungary newsletter, have a look here.

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Location Spotter: Central Market Hall – Budapest

via Wiki Commons

It may seem like just a huge tourist attraction, but in truth the Central Market Hall (Nagycsarnok) at Fővám Square in Budapest is primarily used by locals, who shop there for market-fresh produce. The structure itself – and we would forgive you if you mistook it for a train station – is as impressive as any in Budapest. Though you can see resemblances to the Eiffel-designed Western Train Station (Nyugati pályaudvar) the hall was designed by Hungarian architect Samu Pecz for an opening in 1897. Each world war took a toll on the Central Market Hall, but a renovation in 1990 brought it back to its original splendor. The hall itself comprises 10,000 square meters, and is adorned with a huge iron gate done in Neo-gothic style, giving the building a dark but regal feeling. In 1999 the Central Market Hall was awarded with the FIABCI Prix d’Excellence.

Inside, over three levels, the vendors almost all sell goods that come from their own farms, though some act as retailers for  others.

The Central Market Hall was recently the subject of an hour-long documentary: Food Markets –In the Belly of the City. Budapest was included  along with four other cities (Lyons, Turin, Vienna, and Barcelona) in examining the culture of large cities’ central food markets. The film is highly recommended if you want to see just how atmospheric the hall is, and how intriguing the personal stories of select individual vendors are.

Though we have no clip from the documentary, here is the world’s most popular travel-guide writer, Rick Steves, in a video highlighting the Central Market Hall. Enjoy.

PPM Film Services is a Budapest-based film company offering an inspiring and creative work atmosphere for its host of clients from around the world. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we’re charged to create, we do it with no compromise. To sign up for the PPM Hungary newsletter, have a look here.

 

 

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Kornél Mundruczó’s White God (Fehér Isten) at Cannes

We are pleased to report to our international readership that Hungarian director and local favorite Kornél Mundruczó will be returning to the Cannes Film Festival with his latest effort, entitled Fehér Isten (White God). The feature film will be screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the competition, along with Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut Lost Rover, and Cannes regular Wim Wenders’ latest film The Salt of the Earth. Fehér Isten follows the story of a young girl and her dog, who live in a dystopian society where dogs are levied with a special tax. When the girl, 13-year-old Lili (played by Zsófia Psotta) has her dog taken from her by her father (Sándor Zsótér), she runs away to find her pet. The Hungarian-German-Swedish coproduction featured 200 dogs as extras, all overseen by Los Angeles dog trainer Teresa Miller.

via filmmakermagazine.com

“I’m curious, how to get closer, to touch a broader audience approaching the auteur film in a very personal way,” Mundruczó said to the film site filmneweurope.com.  Fehér Isten also represents another success for the Hungarian Film Fund, which contributed money to its making .

As reported a while back on this blog, Kornél Mundruczó made a huge splash with his film Delta, a minimalistic drama whose long shots owe a lot to art-house favorite (and another lauded Hungarian film director) Bela Tarr.  Much was made of the quiet tension in the movie and taboo topic of incest, though many critics also cited the cinematography (Mátyás Erdély ) as outstanding. Delta was also screened at Cannes, an honor shared by his previous film Johanna, and his dark offerning, Tender Son: The Frankenstein Project.

 The Cannes Film Festival is in its 67^th year, and will take place from the 14^th to the 25^th of May, 2014.

via imdb.com

PPM Film Services is a Budapest-based film company offering an inspiring and creative work atmosphere for its host of clients from around the world. Since our inception, our focus has been providing the best of the best in terms of local production resources, locations, cast and technical teams to ensure that whatever the production we’re charged to create, we do it with no compromise. To sign up for the PPM Hungary newsletter, have a look here.

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