Le grand cahier – A nagy füzet –The Notebook
When a feature film based on a novel by a Hungarian-born author who fled that country in 1956 was scheduled at the local cinema, the CHEF website decided to take a closer look.
Source: UNHCR
The 2013 film, A nagy füzet, is an adaptation of the novel Le grand Cahier written in French by Agota Kristof and published in 1986 in her adopted country since 1956: Switzerland. The novel follows the experiences of twin boys who are packed off to the presumed safety of their grandmother’s farm outside a village as war rages all around. Far from being protected, the young boys are surrounded by violence and they witness first-hand how in order to survive terrible choices are involved. The film removes much of the intentional ambiguity of the original novel and sets the action clearly in Hungary during the Second World War.
Directed by János Szász, the film was Hungary’s entry in last year’s Academy Awards. It is an adaptation of the first novel in a trilogy by Agota Kristof who was born in Hungary in 1935. She fled to Switzerland in 1956 and lived there until her death in 2011. She wrote in French, not Hungarian. After “The Notebook” came “Proof” in 1988, and then in 1991, “The Third Lie.” Kristof did not live to see this film version of her first novel, she died in 2011. Read more
Hungarian Movies at the World Film Festival, Montreal
August 14th, 2011
Magyar Filmunió (The Hungarian Film Union), Hungary’s film promotion office, has informed us that the
35th Montreal World Film Festival (18-28 August) will premiere two Hungarian feature films. Read more
Hungarian Film Week and photo exhibit in Montreal Feb 25 – March 3rd 2011
February 14th 2011
An exciting week of Hungarian film and photography is taking place at the Cinema du Parc in Montreal with the vernissage for both at 5 pm on February 25th 2011. The event is being organized by members of the Canadian Hungarian Artists’ Collective (CHAC) and curated by filmmaker Tamas Wormser. Read more
Canadian-Hungarian films in Saint John, NB
November 25th 2010
When Tamás Wormser was asked to assemble the film programme to accompany the Re:InSitu exhibition currently on display at the Saint John Arts Centre in New Brunswick, he knew it was going to be a challenging if not frustrating experience. Why? Because he would have to leave out so many excellent films. To help narrow the field, he chose to focus on filmmakers and not producers, writers, or actors. They will have to wait for another festival that Wormser thinks would be a very interesting experience for audiences. Read more
Diefenbunker screens Freedom’s Fury March 16th 2010
Diefenbunker, Canada’s Cold War Museum, is screening the hugely successful feature-length documentary Freedom’s Fury, directed by Canadian brother-sister team of Colin Gray and Meagan Reaney. This historical film produced in 2006 in time for the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution, had its gala premiere at the National Gallery of Canada in September 2006 – organized by the Canada-Hungary Educational Foundation as one of its major educational activities in commemoration of the Hungarian refugee movement to Canada in 1956-57. Read more
Hungarian film at the EU Film Festival, Ottawa, Vancouver
November 30th 2009
As in previous years, the Canadian Film Institute in cooperation with the Embassy of Hungary has included a recent Hungarian film in the annual EU Film Festival. The Ottawa screening of Overnight takes place on December 2nd, but the film is also being screened in Vancouver a few days later. For more information about the film, click here. To find out more about the Festival Program and the Canadian Film Institute, see the festival’s home page.Premiere of Susan Papp’s Outcasts on OMNI 1, Nov 15th 2009
November 3rd, 2009
Susan Papp’s successful Outcasts – A Love Story, published by Dundurn Press in May 2009 has been turned into a documentary film, produced and directed by Susan with the screen version written by Allen Abel. The film will be premiered on OMNI 1 on November 15th at 9pm. For more information about this project, see the media backgrounder HERE and for more information on the book, see our web page.
Film Festival of Canadian films in Hungary
July 3rd, 2009
As part of the Canadian-Hungarian artists’ exhibition in Hungary in the summer of 2009, a number of films made by Canadian artists of Hungarian origin are being shown in Hungary from July 3-13. Read more
Vancouver Première screening of Freedom’s Fury and Touched by Water
Pacific Cinémathèque and the New Hungarian Voice are presenting Freedom’s Fury
and Touched by Water
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
Pacific Cinematheque
1131 Howe Street, Suite 200 Vancouver, B.C. V6Z 2L7 Canada
See both films for the Single Bill Ticket Price: $9.50 Adults, $8 Students/Seniors. Membership in Pacific Cinémathèque or the Hungarian Canadian Cultural Alliance will be accepted for this event.
For more information about the films Read more
Hungarian documentary on forgotten hero screened in Ottawa
A Hungarian documentary film entitled Captain Ocskay, the Forgotten Hero will be screened on November 6, 2008, at the Ottawa Public Library. This powerful documentary film tells the story of a Hungarian army officer whose heroic deeds have all but been forgotten. Captain László Ocskay went to extraordinary lengths to save the lives of hundreds of Jews in Budapest.
Click on the image for better viewing of the poster. Read more
Interview with Albert Kish
Read an interview with Albert Kish conducted by Lorraine Weideman of the New Hungarian Voice. Kish is a Canadian film maker, photographer and former NFB director who came to Canada in 1957. This interview appeared in the Summer 2006 issue of the NHV.
Profile of Filmmaker Tamás Wormser
By Marguerite Marlin
Tamás Wormser, who grew up in Budapest and now lives in Montréal, has established himself as a presence on the Canadian and International film scene in the years following his immigration to Canada from Hungary in 1986. His films have garnered many international awards and recognition, including a nomination for Best Documentary at the 2006 Montreal World Film Festival, and have been described in the press as “original, beautiful, low-key” (The Globe and Mail) with Wormser himself described as having “a way of showing us the beauty beyond what is ostensibly ordinary” (Montreal Mirror). Read more
CBC Honours the Hungarian 1956 Revolution with the film “The Fifty-sixers”
On October 25th and November 4th 2006, CBC TV screened a specially commissioned documentary on 1956 and the stories of some of the Hungarian refugees who came to Canada. To find out about their stories Read more
Canadian Première of Freedom’s Fury
The Canada-Hungary Educational Foundation and Water Polo Canada jointly organized a gala premiere of the historical documentary Freedom’s Fury. The event took place at the National Gallery of Canada on September 29th, 2006. Some four hundred people enjoyed the evening including many young water polo players, as well as members of the local Hungarian community. Read more
Here is a never before published photo of longtime NFB director, Albert Kish
A photo of Albert Kish around 1970 in one of Montreal’s Hungarian Cafes,
the Rosemary. Albert Kish is on the left and George Pandi on the right.