Dolina

Colour, 35 mm
Hungary, Romania, 2007, 122 min
IP – International premiere
Section: Official Selection - Competition

Synopsis

Bogdanski Dolina, a small town lost somewhere in the Eastern Carpathians, was once attacked by a horde of strange marauders who, so it seems, settled here for good. They imposed a certain order which is comprehensible only to themselves, as is the purpose of their bizarre clothing. The town is now in decline and is slowly turning into a scrap heap; human relationships are similarly marked, exposed to inscrutable fluctuation. The film clearly belongs to the line of modern Hungarian cinematography which seeks socio-critical parables and is typical for its eloquent formal stylisation and expressive visual composition. The character of the stranger is plainly allegorical, whose arrival exposes and heightens the manifestations of aggression, manipulation and pretence characteristic of both the ruling and the subjugated classes. Given the universal stagnation spawned by infinite despotism, it seems there is no room left for hope...

About the director

Zoltán Kamondi (b. 1960, Budapest) initially studied fine art, and then film direction at the Film and Theatre Academy in Budapest (1988); during his last two years there, he was also a member of the Directors’ Council at the famous Béla Balázs Film Studio. Since the beginning of his professional career, he has been making feature films, documentaries and TV programmes, and he also works as a producer and stage director. He debuted with the film Path of Death and Angels (Halálutak és angyalok, 1990), after which came the feature films The Alchemist and the Virgin (Az alkimista és a szüp, 1998) and Temptations (2002 – screened at the KVIFF in 2002). His latest film Dolina  was based on the novel The Archbishop’s Visit by Ádám Bodor.