Writer, film historian Nemeskurty dies

Budapest, October 9 (MTI) – Author, film and literary historian Istvan Nemeskurty has died, at the age of 90, the family told MTI on Friday.

Born in 1925, he first published his writings in the Vigilia Catholic journal in 1947. He later worked for Magveto Publishing House and Hungarian film company Mafilm. He then was director of the Hungarian Film Institute from 1984 until his retirement.

Nemeskurty was involved in filmmaking for almost 30 decades, which period produced 160 Hungarian feature-length films and launched 30 fresh directors.

Between 1993-1995 he served as president of the Hungarian Writers’ Chamber. He was recipient of the highest state Kossuth and Szechenyi Awards.

Janos Ader, Hungary’s president, said Nemeskurty was an exceptional personality, one of the few who received the entire nation’s attention whenever he rose to speak. “As a patient teacher, he taught us to remember our past, to learn the history that lives within us and to respect the great figures of Hungarian history”, Ader said.

Referring to Nemeskurty, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that he had created an ideological foundation on which a broad alliance was built later. Hungary would not have the political culture, national assembly or government in which civic, national and Christian forces form a majority for which Istvan Nemeskurty had done so much. He was “an inexorable soldier, a teacher and a scientist in one,” he said during a press conference in Kaposvar.

Nemeskurty was an ardent promoter of the notion that Hungarians deserve esteem in the world and that tasks can only be performed today by exploiting the knowledge of generations, and preserving our national pride and virtues of the forebears, he said.

Ruling Fidesz said that an outstanding intellectual, an eminent teacher and a “brilliant mind” is gone whose space will be hard to fill.

The opposition Socialists said that Nemeskurty was respected across the board for his extensive knowledge and thought-provoking approach to several issues. He was a noted personality in Hungarian cultural and artistic life for decades, the party said.

Radical nationalist Jobbik said Nemeskurty was “the living conscience” of scientific life even during the communist era, the first to dare address national tragedies in Hungarian history such as the Trianon peace treaty and the tragedy of the 2nd Hungarian army at the Don river in WWII.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters