Hungarian movie screening and panel discussion with the filmmakers in Copenhagen in cooperation with the Danish Film Institute (Cinemateket)
On April 4, 2023, our Embassy in cooperation with the Danish Film Institute (Cinemateket), was the first to screen abroad the sketchfilm titled "The Quarantine Zone", a five-part feature-film, which was premiered in Hungary in 2022 and is currently distributed by the HBO Max streaming service. After the screening, a panel discussion with the creators, director Dániel Indi Zsótér, scriptwriter Orsolya Vida and co-composer and music producer Márton Szegedi took place in front of an audience of about 100 people, some of whom were members of the diplomatic corps, some of whom were local Hungarians and some of whom were Danish viewers. The filmmakers shared with the audience the different stages of the filmmaking process, explained the financial and technical background of the filmmaking, talked about the topicality of the subject, the impact of the pandemic on them, and their personal experiences, some of which inspired the short films. The panel discussion concluded with a discussion of questions from the audience. The Quarantine Zone is the first feature film by young Hungarian filmmakers to be produced with community funding, featuring young emerging acting talents, nationally known artists, as well as amateurs and family members. HBO Max, a Warner subsidiary, has made The Quarantine Zone the first Hungarian feature film to be broadcast. The screening and panel discussion was followed by a reception with Hungarian wine, scones and sandwiches.
The Quarantine Zone is inspired by the dystopian world of the American sci-fi/fantasy series "The Twilight Zone", Black Mirror and the quarantine situation in 2020. The mystical, often grotesque stories are set in five urban apartments with no gardens or balconies, just walls and the narrow spaces they enclose. The sketch film is a reflection on the new and forced state of being alone, or precisely of being alone with others, which is made more difficult. The creators were concerned with the impact of this new situation on human relationships, on the body and the psyche. The five stories focus on the experiences of people forced into quarantine, from the absurdity of social loneliness, through the good and bad of relationships, to the plight of the elderly, to the challenge of digital education, and the fundamental questions of life. In "The Quarantine Zone", the boundaries between imagination and reality are blurred in the service of self-awareness. In each case, isolation and hopelessness generate mystical solutions to the situations. As the film has an overall concept, the use of music and narration further enhance the film as a whole. We see apt life situations, combined with extremely strong visual content. Each sketch has a different style, making for an easy to watch, engaging film. The five-episode film stars actors such as Erzsi Pásztor, László Ujréti, Zalán Makranczi, Tünde Majsai-Nyilas and Eszter Ónodi. The screenplay was written by Orsolya Vida and Dániel Zsótér Indi, the lead cinematographer was Dávid Gajdics Gávid, alongside Balázs Ferenc Dimeth, and the individual episodes were photographed by Gábor Szentiványi and Máté Szombath Szentiványi.
