East of the West - Competition 2007 / Boldog új élet / Hungary 2007
The film is set in the present, in an unidentified Hungarian town. The young Romany Attila was brought up in a children’s home and, having come of age, is completely unprepared for life in the outside world. On his own initiative, he is given access to information about his family. Award for Best Debut and Best Music (Hungarian Film Week 2007).
The film is set in the present, in an unidentified Hungarian town. The young Romany boy Attila was brought up in a children’s home and, having come of age, is completely unprepared for life in the outside world. On his own initiative, he is given access to information about his family and hopes that this will help him find his place in a world in which he finds himself totally abandoned. However, he has strong memories of the day he was separated from his parents, and the promise of a “happy, new life” for Attila still seems very remote. For his feature debut, director Árpád Bogdán partly draws on his own experiences. He grew up in a children’s home until the age of 14, cut off from the world around him. He basis his testimony not on the powerful story, but on the compelling atmosphere of dispossession, which he creates with the aid of stylised images and minimalist music. The film Happy New Life won an award for best debut and best music (Hungarian Film Week 2007).
81 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Árpád Bogdán
/ Screenplay Árpád Bogdán
/ Dir. of Photography Gábor Szabó, Márk Györi
/ Music Membran
/ Editor Márk Györi
/ Producer Gábor Sipos, Gábor Rajna
/ Production Laokoon Film
/ Cast Lajos Orsós, Michaela Gőczi, István Szilvási, Roland Tzafetás, Zsolt Kovács, Ágnes Daróczi
/ Contact National Film Institute Hungary, LAOKOON FILMGROUP
www: www.laokoonfilm.com
Árpád Bogdán (b. 1976, Nagykanisza, Hungary) before making several shorts and his feature debut Happy New Life, he studied social welfare, Romany and pedagogy at Pécs University. In addition, he became established in his original field as a stage actor and director. He was also a painter and published poetry in newspapers and anthologies. He brought these disciplines together in his most recent project, a production of a monodrama on eminent Hungarian poet from the first half of the 20th century, József Attila.
National Film Institute Hungary
Róna utca 174., 1145, Budapest
Hungary
Phone: +36 30 4414465, +36 146 113 20
LAOKOON FILMGROUP
Balzac 37, 1136, Budapest
Hungary
Phone: +36 1 354 0491
Fax: +36 1 354 0491
E-mail: [email protected]
Annamária Basa
Árpád Bogdán
Film Director, Film Director
Gábor Sipos
Producer, Producer
Gábor Rajna
Producer, Producer
Márk Győri
Director of Photography, Director of Photography
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