“City in Focus” returns to 2024 Taipei Film Festival 20 Budapest classics, a selection of contemporary masterpieces and three films of legendary Hungarian master Béla Tarr will be screened at Taipei Film Festival
2024.04.26
Today, the 20th Taipei Film Festival announces the return of the “City in Focus” category. This year, the focus is Budapest in Hungary, and the carefully selected 20 films include the classics and the works which are funny and interesting or raise the contemporary issues. This selection that resembles a condensed history of Budapest cinema will bring a celebration for the Hungarian culture to the audience. In addition, the Hungarian legendary director Béla Tarr is this year’s “Filmmaker in Focus.” The timing coincides with the digital restoration of his first feature Family Nest, which won the Grand Prize at Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film festival and second feature, The Outsider. Twenty years after they were shown in Taiwan for the first time, the digitally restored version of these two films will be screened at Taipei Film Festival this year. Tarr’s last feature, The Turin Horse, which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlinale, is also selected for this year’s program. These three films put together demonstrate the changed and the unchanged throughout this legendary director’s career and therefore, it is an unmissable opportunity for the cineastes.
Three of Hungarian director Béla Tarr’s Classics, including Family Nest, will be screened at Taipei Film Festival
Now aged 68, Béla Tarr is an expert in analyzing the ordinary people’s lives with a slow practiced approach; in his highly stylized long takes, Tarr reconstructs the repetitive, boring, meaningless, and repressed daily lives of those who live at the bottom of society. In Family Nest, Tarr squeezes the audience into a tiny apartment, in which seven family members of three generations live; up close, the audience witness how the bickering in their daily lives crushes the younger generation as Tarr unexpectedly unveils the evil and dark side of human nature. The Outsider, his second feature, is one of the only two films Tarr shot in color. It portrays a young man who seeks comfort in drinking while striving to live his life as a bohemian artist; Tarr realistically depicts how the material life in a modern city mercilessly shatters the dreams of those who live on the margins of society. Tarr’s last feature, The Turin Horse, shows six days of the lives of an old horse, an elderly father, and his daughter on a desolate farm as a storm is approaching through thirty long takes. Whether as a creator or a filmmaker, Tarr has inherited the traditions and inspired the future generations. Starting from the Budapest School, Tarr’s films have evolved into a completely different aesthetic and become the byword for the contemporary Hungarian cinema.
Three of Hungarian director Béla Tarr’s Classics, including Family Nest, will be screened at Taipei Film Festival
Now aged 68, Béla Tarr is an expert in analyzing the ordinary people’s lives with a slow practiced approach; in his highly stylized long takes, Tarr reconstructs the repetitive, boring, meaningless, and repressed daily lives of those who live at the bottom of society. In Family Nest, Tarr squeezes the audience into a tiny apartment, in which seven family members of three generations live; up close, the audience witness how the bickering in their daily lives crushes the younger generation as Tarr unexpectedly unveils the evil and dark side of human nature. The Outsider, his second feature, is one of the only two films Tarr shot in color. It portrays a young man who seeks comfort in drinking while striving to live his life as a bohemian artist; Tarr realistically depicts how the material life in a modern city mercilessly shatters the dreams of those who live on the margins of society. Tarr’s last feature, The Turin Horse, shows six days of the lives of an old horse, an elderly father, and his daughter on a desolate farm as a storm is approaching through thirty long takes. Whether as a creator or a filmmaker, Tarr has inherited the traditions and inspired the future generations. Starting from the Budapest School, Tarr’s films have evolved into a completely different aesthetic and become the byword for the contemporary Hungarian cinema.
A selection of 16 Revolutionary Hungarian New Wave films that present the lives in an authoritarian regime on screen
As the political, cultural, and economic center of Hungary, Budapest has a long history and rich cultural assets. As a result, the films made in the city show a unique style and solid content. From the 1960s to 1980s, the famous Balázs Béla Studio (BBS) was hailed as the incubator of the Hungarian feature films. When the turbulent authoritarian regime in Hungary clashed with the European New Wave movement, many groundbreaking films were born. Therefore, in “Budapest: The Hungarian New Wave” and “Budapest: Riding on the Crest - Balázs Béla Studio,” the two sub-categories of City in Focus, Taipei Film Festival selects many classics, which unveil the lives in Hungarian society at the time.
The selection of “Budapest: The Hungarian New Wave” include Current, which tells a sad story of growing up and was voted one of the twelve best Hungarian films, Father, which reflects the anxiety about the lack of role models the young generation suffers after the revolution, The Upthrown Stone, which portrays the lives of those who live at the bottom of society in an authoritarian regime, Holiday in Britain, which is a satirical comedy about the slow decline of Socialism, The Lady from Constantinople, which raises the issue of the high housing cost and The Round-Up, which mimics the complicated relationships between individuals and the authorities. All these films are not only brilliant but powerful, revealing the sadness and joy of living in a repressive system.
In “Budapest: Riding on the Crest - Balázs Béla Studio” includes Mole directed by the celebrated master Ildikó Enyedi; inspired by a sci-fi novel, the film tells the adventure of an unknown alien agent, who parachutes into a calm and peaceful forest on Earth. In addition, there is the experimental documentary, Instructive Society, directed by Judit Ember; through a class reunion, it shows the detailed observation on how the youth grow and realize themselves and the crises in their love lives. Apart from these two feature-length films, which will have their Taiwanese premiere at Taipei Film Festival, eight short films will be screened, including Encounter, Elégia, You, Gipsies, Capriccio, Four Bagatelles, The Long Distance Runner and In Woman’s Hands.
The 2024 Taipei Film Festival is scheduled to take place from June 21st to July 6th at the Taipei Zhongshan Hall, Xinyi VieShow Cinemas, and Spot Huashan Cinema. More line-up and events will be announced gradually. For further details, please stay tuned to the Taipei Film Festival official website. (https://www.taipeiff.taipei/tw/), Instagram (https://instagram.com/taipeiff) or FACEBOOK (https://www.facebook.com/TaipeiFilmFestival).
