Zoltan Fabri


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Zoltan Fabri (1917), Hungary's main filmmaker of the 1950s, debuted with A Vihar/ In Storm (1952), written by Erno Urban, and Eletjel/ Fourteen Lives in Danger (1954), scripted by Tibor Tardos, about miners trapped inside a collapsed mine.

Ottenne il primo successo Ungherese all'estero con Korhinta/ Merry-go-round (1956), which launched actress Mari Torocsik, based on a short story by Imre Sarkadi, an artful combination of rural folklore, love melodrama and generational rebellion.

Fabri "rediscovered" montage and flashbacks, which had been de facto banned by socialist realism.

Another step towards the liberation of Hungarian cinema from communist dogmas was the satirical Hannibal Tanar Ur/ Professor Hannibal (1956), adapted from a Ferenc Mora novel, in which a frail and innocent intellectual is led by grotesque circumstances to self-criticism in order to avoid being lynched by a mob.

After the Soviet invasion, Fabri made the realistic melodrama Edes Anna (1958), about the disadventures of a young village girl in prewar Budapest, and the mediocre rural drama A Duvad/ The Brute (1959).

Passata la repressione, diresse con vigore e passione Ket Felido a Pokolban/ Two Half-Times in Hell (1961), set in a Nazi concentration camp, e Husz Ora/ Twenty Hours (1964), based on a novel by Ferenc Santa and photographed by Gyorgy Illes, an investigation organized like Kurosawa's Rashomon, with multiple flashbacks in which different characters tell a different version of the truth, one of the first movies to deal with the damages caused by the collectivization and Rakosi's Stalinist policies.

Nappali Sotetseg/ Darkness in Daytime (1963)

Útoszezon/ Late Season (1966)

A Pal Utcai Fiuk/ Boys of Paul Street (1969), an adaptation of Ferenc Molnar's 1909 novel,

Istm Horta Ornagy Ur/ The Toth Family (1969) è una favola ironica sulla nevrosi e sul terrore del potere: una famiglia ospita un ufficiale sperando di favorire la carriera del figlio soldato; il figlio è già morto in prima linea, ma loro non lo sanno, e continueranno giorno dopo giorno a piegarsi umilmente a tutti i capricci dell'ufficiale, ad accontentarlo in tutto.

Hangyayaboly/ Ant Hill (1971)

Plusz-minusz Egy Nap/ Plus-Minus One Day (1973)

141 Perc a Befejezetlen Mondatbol/ 141 Minutes from the Unfinished Sentence (1975)

Az Otodik Pecset/ The Fifth Seal (1976), based on a novel by Ferenc Santa, stands as a philosophical meditation.

Magyarok/ Hungarians (1978)

Requiem (1982)

Gyertek el a Nevnapomra/ Housewarming (1983)

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