Light Falls on Your Face

Colour, 35mm
HungaryRomania, 2001, 92 min
Section: Official Selection - Competition

Synopsis

Two riders, exhausted after a long crusade fighting losing battles, are looking for a place to spend the night in a village, a route they once took in more glorious times. The inhabitants of the settlement are hidden away in destroyed homes; only a wretched and dangerous mob roams the streets outside – the victims of war. The riders find the prominent old Notary hanging in his house. The fugitives finally find sanctuary with the solitary old Teacher who has barricaded himself up in his curia where he once administered a “museum of piety”, and where strange rituals were carried out. The new arrivals bear the burden of terrible memories: the Woman’s husband is dead; he fell victim to a wild mob while trying to escape. Perhaps the Woman bears the same guilt for his death as her escort since they left the former commanding officer to his fate, not only because they were surrounded by the horrifying chaos of battle but perhaps also because of a mutual affection. This poetic surrealist film tells the story of how they found each other, of survival in horrific conditions where no one is above blame. Intimacy alternates with scenes of pure cruelty, and images of past and present merge together to an almost musical rhythm.

About the director

Gyula Gulyás (b. 1944, Budapest) graduated in history of art and Hungarian at Budapest University, and later took a degree in philosophy/aesthetics. He and his brother János Gulyás (b. 1946) have been making amateur films since 1959, and he is one of the founding members of the amateur film studio Cinema-64. In 1983 Gulyás began directing for MAFILM Studios. As early as the 1980s, the Gulyás brothers were making feature-length documentaries touching on delicate topics of 20th century Hungarian history (e.g. the two-part Without Breaking the Law /Törvénysértés nélkül, 1982-1988/, on the Hungarian gulag of the 1950s, and Tiny Robot /Málenykij robot, 1987-1989/, about the fate of Hungarians deported to the USSR after the war). He regularly returns to Transylvania, Romania, where he has made poetic documentaries about the lives and traditions of the local Hungarians" Film of Ballads (Balladák filmje, 1983-1989 and Slow Szék / Széki lassú, 1969-1992). Light Falls on Your Face is the director’s first feature film, and at this year’s Hungarian National Festival it was awarded Best Visual Interpretation.