Year: 1996
Country:
Hungary/Germany
Run Time:
97 minutes
"I fell asleep in a meadow in Romania. I woke up - it was Hungary. I stayed." So states one of the polyglot patrons in the Bolshe Vita, a Budapest music club/dive bar frequented by Russian refugees, Western adventurers and international press correspondents streaming into the city in 1990. The Communist empire is crumbling, border gates open and close whimsically, and everyone strives to reach the fabled West. There's Vadim, ex-circus clown turned jazz saxophonist; his partner Yura, an impish folk-guitarist; and Sergei, a mechanical engineer hoping to sell his stash of kitchen knives for passage to Italy. BOLSHE VITA is a comic-tragic snapshot of the long-anticipated Soviet invasion, when a Red Army arrived not as conquerors, but as desperate fortune-seekers, troubadours, smugglers, losers and gangsters. Most characters can't even understand what others are saying at any given moment, but Ibolya Fekete's lucid and observant lens makes sense of a brief, crazy, exhilarating time. (In Russian and Hungarian with English subtitles) - Charles Cassady
Screenplay
Ibolya Fekete
Director
Iboyla Fekete
Producer
Istv?n Darday
Cinematography
Andr?s Szalai
Editing
Kl?ra Majoros
Principal Cast
Yuri Fomichev, Igor Chemievich, Alexei Serebriakov, ?gnes M?hr
Hungaro Film Ltd.
Bathori utca 10
1054 Budapest
Hungary
tel: (36-1) 111 4614
fax: (36-1) 153 1317
Donate
Your donation helps fulfill our mission to promote artistically and culturally significant film arts through education and exhibition.