PLEASANT DAYS aka SZeP NAPOK

Year: 2002
UK: Tartan Films
Cast: Tamas Polgar, Tóth Orsi, Kata Weber, Lajos Ottó Horvath, Andras Rethelyi, Karoly Kuna, Anna Szandtner, Kolos Oroszi, Claudia Tilly, Erika Molnar, Balazs Devai, Istvan Timar, Magdolna Kovacs, Balint Kósa
Director: Kornel Mundruczó
Country: Hungary
Language: Hungarian (English subtitles)
UK: 99 mins
UK Certificate: N/C
UK Release Date: 22 July 2005 (Limited Release - London, ICA)


Synopsis

Kornel Mundruczó's second feature uses improvisatory techniques and memorable imagery to tell this story of youngsters sweating out one summer in a small Hungarian town.

Peter (Tamas Polgar) is just out of prison and is unenamoured with life on the outside. When he witnesses a woman secretly giving birth on the floor of a laundrette, it sets in motion a tricky emotional triangle composed of himself, the child's mother Maja (Tóth Orsi) and his sister Marika (Kata Weber), with whom he seems incestuously close.

Mundruczo creates a world full of discomfiting mystery, sexual frustration, quiet desperation and sudden, unexpected stabs of compassion and redemption. The director enjoyed a major hit recently at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival with his modern opera film JOHANNA; this is a chance to see an early vision from a director destined for great things.