The first Hungarian movie to debut online is Treasure City by Szabolcs Hajdu

On April 23, 2020, Szabolcs Hajdu’s new feature film, Treasure City, made its debut on vimeo. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the forced closure of cinemas has prompted the creators to uniquely market their recent work on an online platform.

Treasure City was realized within the framework of a special educational project in cooperation with Látókép-Production and the Filmtett Association of Kolozsvár.  The crew and some of the actors consisted of highly experienced film professionals, under whose leadership the students of Romanian and Hungarian film schools could gain experience in making a feature film.

“The aim was to allow those who wanted to learn and move on to try themselves in sharp situations. I originally intended the scenes as acting rehearsals and wrote them specifically for the actors, but later, when the idea of the feature film came up, I expanded these scenes, concatenated them, and beyond personal current events, such motives have also been included, which have been of great concern to the public in recent years and have generated heated social debates” – director Szabolcs Hajdu says.

The plot revolves around the issue of dominance, harassment and vulnerability in different human contexts, on the border of imagination and reality, be it a marriage, a friendship, a parent-child or state-citizen relationship.

“In the current situation we still felt that in our own way we could help people to spend this difficult period meaningfully. This is how the idea came that we would not wait for the revival of cinema distribution and film festivals with the Treasure City, but present it online. Last but not least, watching it is an excellent opportunity to support independent Hungarian filmmakers,” – said Orsolya Török-Illyés, one of the main characters and producers of the film.

The movie can be rented on THIS LINK.

Source: www.bestofbudapest.com