The ELTE– NFI FILMIO University Film Club screening and discussion series continues. We welcome university members from all ELTE faculties.
Twenty Hours is a bitter, shocking tableau of the fate of Hungarian peasants. Zoltán Fábri is one of the first to talk about topics that were previously considered taboo: 1956 and the excesses of the Rákosi era. He unfolds his story from recollections in a fragmented chronological order. Everyone tells how they experienced history; everyone has their own truth. This was a revolutionary innovation after the dogmatic filmmaking of the 1950s, in which uniform political slogans had to be voiced.
In 1965, in a small village in Hungary, a reporter spends twenty hours in the village to recall the events of the past twenty years. Why did Anti Balogh shoot his best friend? And why did Sándor Varga, a member of the secret police, kill his childhood friend? He visits houses one by one, talks to people, and the tragedies pile up. The story reveals how politics destroyed friendships and what drove the villagers to despair.
Date: 11 March 2026, 6:00 p.m.
Venue: University Square Campus, Weiss Emilia Hall (1053 Budapest, Egyetem tér 1–3., ground floor, in the corridor next to the cloakroom)
Director: Zoltán Fábri
Writer: Ferenc Sántha
Cinematographer: György Illés
Editor: Ferencné Szécsényi
Main roles: Antal Páger, János Görbe, Emil Keres, Ádám Szirtes, László György, József Bihari
Our guests in the post-screening discussion will be Dr. Gábor Gelencsér, aesthetician, film historian, associate professor at ELTE BTK, and László Eörsi, historian, whose main area of research is the 1956 revolution.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0aCqP6TepY
Due to limited seating, advance registration is required: https://www.ajk.elte.hu/husz-ora-fabri-zoltan-filmje-1965.
The organisers welcome any correspondence regarding the film club at eltenfi.filmklub@elte.hu.
ELTE–NFI Film Club Facebook page