Legendary Hungarian director Károly Makk dies aged 91

Legendary Hungarian director Károly Makk has died at the age of 91, the Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts told MTI on Wednesday.

Makk was a prominent and respected figure in both Hungarian and international cinema.

Six of his films — Liliomfi (1954), Love (1971), Cats’ Play (1972), A Very Moral Night (1977), Another Way (1982) and The Last Manuscript (1987) — were nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Of them, Love won the Jury Prize.

His films competed at the London, New York, San Sebastian and Madrid film festivals, winning numerous awards.

Makk taught at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest for several decades.

His first film, Liliomfi, was seen by some seven million people.

Love, which was based on two short stories written by Tibor Déry, became one of the most significant works of Hungarian cinema. For political reasons, the script remained tucked away for six years until 1970. The story had to be rewritten so that the protagonist is released from the prison of communist dictator Mátyás Rákosi as opposed to that of then-communist leader János Kádár. The film has been ranked among the 12 best Hungarian films of all time. It was re-screened at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

His film Cats’ Play was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1974.

The 1982 film Another Way, based on Erzsébet Galgóczy’s semi-autobiographical novella Another Love, was among the first films in Hungarian film history to discuss the retaliation that followed the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising. It was the first ever Hungarian film to depict a lesbian relationship.

In the 1991 film Hungarian Requiem, Makk paid tribute to the young martyrs of the 1956 revolution.

Makk was awarded the Kossuth Prize in 1973. In 2004, he was bestowed the title of Master of Hungarian Motion Picture.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI