Here is a listing of films our librarian daughter, Lauren, was able to research and pull together a number of years ago. Since then, many more films have become available.

Some of these may be able to be accessed through Inter-Library Loan (ILL) if your local library will do that with movies (some do not). Libraries are wonderful resources and librarians are very skilled at research! Do not be afraid to ask your local librarian for help locating any of these titles. Our library system offers Overdrive and it also offers some video streaming. You might get lucky and find some Hungarian related films there.  If you cannot find them through your local library, you can also go to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, Disney+ or wherever you watch movies and see what is out there!

The following films might be filmed in Hungary or have some Hungarian words in it or have Hungarian directors.

The following were found using the search term “Budapest (Hungary) — Drama — DVD-Video discs.”

My Mother’s Courage
Videodisc release of the 1995 motion picture.
Based on the novel by George Tabori.
Not rated.
Dolby Digital.
High school -adults.
Producer/director/writer, Michael Verhoeven ; music, Julian Nott with Simon Verhoeven.

In 1944 Budapest, a mother’s act of quiet defiance saves her from deportation to Auschwitz.
_____________

Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod = Gloomy Sunday
Videodisc release of the 1999 motion picture.
Adapted from the novel: Das Lied vom traurigen Sonntag / by Nick Barkow.
Closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.
Not rated.
Dolby Digital 5.1.
Producer, Richard Schöps ; screenplay, Ruth Toma and Rolf Schübel ; director, Rolf Schübel ; music, Detlef Friedrich Petersen, Rezsö Seress

A bizarre love triangle involving a restaurant owner, his pianist, and a beautiful waitress in 1930s Budapest inspires the pianist to compose a tune so depressing it causes a series of suicides.
_____________

Sorstalanság = Fateless
Videodisc release of the 2005 motion picture.
Based on the novel of the same title by Imre Kertesz.
Rated R for some disturbing Holocaust images, including nudity, and brief strong language.
Dolby Digital 5.1 surround ; Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo.
Producer, Andras Hamori ; screenplay, Imre Kertesz ; director, Lajos Koltai ; music, Ennio Morricone.

A 14-year-old Jewish boy from Budapest is taken from his family in 1944 and sent to a concentration camp.
_____________

Egymásra nézve = Another way
At head of title: Karoly Makk’s.
Videodisc release of the 1982 motion picture.
Not rated.
Dolby Digital.
Writer/director, Karoly Makk ; original music, Laszlo Des, Janos Masik.

In the aftermath of the failed Hungarian revolution of 1956, the beautiful wife of an army officer falls in love with an outspoken lesbian journalist who shares her office at a Budapest newspaper.
_____________

Woyzeck
Videodisc release of the 1994 motion picture.
Based on the play by Georg Buchner.
Not rated.
Dolby Digital stereo.
Producer, Péter Barbalics ; writer/director, János Szász

A Budapest railroad flagman who barely ekes out a living for his family snaps when he discovers his wife is having an affair with a policeman.
_____________

The shop around the corner
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer presents an Ernst Lubitsch production
DVD | Turner Entertainment Co. | 2002
Videodisc release of the 1940 motion picture.
Based on the play: Parfumerie / by Nikolaus Laszlo.
Closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.
Not rated.
Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut
Summary: Two bickering sales clerks in a Budapest gift shop are unknowingly engaged in a relationship as anonymous pen pals.
_____________

Kontroll = Control
Videodisc release of the 2003 motion picture.
Rated R for language, some violence, and brief sexuality.
Producers, Tamás Hutlassa and Nimrod Antal ; writer/director, Nimród Antal.
In Hungarian with English subtitles

A young ticket inspector for the Budapest subway system travels throughout the subterranean system, encountering a series of outcasts, falling for a beautiful stranger, and facing off against rival co-workers and a terrifying killer.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The following were listed under “Foreign films-Hungary”.

Sátántangó
This is a recorded DVD and may not play on all DVD players.
Based on the novel: Sátántangó / by Lázló Krasznahorkai.
Originally produced as a motion picture in 1994.
Widescreen format (1.66:1).
Cinematography, Béla Tarr, Gábor Medvigy ; film editor, Agnes Hranitzky ; music, Mihály Víg.
DVD-R, all-zone, NTSC.
In Hungarian with optional English subtitles.

“The story revolves around an abandoned agricultural collective, where a handful of lost and lonely characters eke out a living until a charismatic con man arrives to shake things up”–Container.
_____________

A Torinói ló = The Turin horse
Includes special features.
Photography, Fed Kelemen ; music, Vig Mihály

Legend has it that German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche collapsed and never recovered after trying to shield a dray horse from a beating in Turin, Italy. In his final opus, director Bela Tarr focuses on the ultimate fate of the horse and his master, a rural farmer whose livelihood depends on the aging, stubborn animal.
_____________

Fehér tenyér = White palms
Title from container.
Videodisc release of the 2006 motion picture.
Special features: Original theatrical trailer; trailers from other films by Strand Releasing.
Director of photography, András Nagy ; editor, Péter Politzer ; music, Peace Orchestra, Galt MacDermot, Ferenc Darvas.

Having suffered as a boy under a brutal Communist-era coach, a Hungarian gymnast has nowhere to turn when the system of state subsidies collapses, except to a teaching gig in Canada.
_____________

A porcelánbaba = The porcelain doll
Videodisc release of the 2005 motion picture.
Based on: Star Farm / by Ervin Lázár.
Not rated.
Dolby Digital.
Producer, Dénes Szekeres ; writers, Péter Gárdos and Ervin Lázár ; director, Péter Gárdos.
Three tales of rural life in Hungary, taking place from the 1930s through the 1950s, feature a teenager beating a group of soldiers in athletic competition, a state official’s attempt to resurrect the dead, and an attempt by the authorities to relocate an elderly couple.
_____________

The Witman boys
General Note: Based on a short story by Géza Csáth.
Originally released as a motion picture in Hungary in 1997.
Includes interview with director Janos Szasz.
Abstract: Two brothers neglected by their mother after their father’s death, find love at the local brothel where they are forced to do despicable things in their search for love.
_____________

Good evening Mr. Wallenberg
General Note: DVD release of the 1990 motion picture.
Abstract: “The story of Swedish businessman Raoul Wallenberg who helped Jews in Budapest, Hungary in 1944 obtain Swedish passports to get them out of Adolph Eichmann’s deadly path. He saved over 60,000 people in Budapest’s Jewish ghetto.”–Container.
_____________

Rose’s songs
General Note: Title from container.
Originally produced as a motion picture in 2003.
Special features: music video; photo album; making of the movie.
Abstract: A Jewish family hides with an opera singer whose voice is so beautiful it is said to protect everyone from being captured around him, during the Nazi occupancy of World War II. Includes an interview with the director.
_____________

Bolshe vita
General Note: Title from container.
Originally released as a motion picture in 1995.
Special feature: Interview with director.
Abstract: Three young dreamers cross the Russian border intoHungary after the fall of the Berlin Wall, hoping to escape the poverty of the old Soviet Union and the politics of communism. As soon as musicians Yura and Vadim set foot on Hungarian soil, they strike out on their own for Budapest, leaving their musicians’ collective behind. Meanwhile, Sergei, a serious-minded engineer, arrives in Budapest with two suitcases full of knives he hopes to sell. The trio meet in Budapest, portrayed as a teeming international bohemia, full of footloose adventurers from all over Europe and the United States. This youthful spirit soon fades, however, as gangsters take control of the markets and drive out small-time entrepreneurs.
_____________

Glamour
General Note: Originally released as a motion picture in 2000.
Special features: full chapterization and original theatrical trailer.
Abstract: Follows the lives and fortunes of an Orthodox Jewish family and their furniture manufacturing business in Budapest from the end of World War I through the Stalinist era.
_____________

Child murders [DVD] = Gyerekgyilkosságok
General Note: Originally produced as a motion picture in 1992.
Abstract: Zsolt lives a lonely life with his grandmother and spends so much time taking care of her that he has little time for much else. However, he makes friends with Juli, a homeless young gypsy woman. This friendship becomes known to the other children in his circle, and results in his being ridiculed, ostracized and beaten. When Juli has a miscarriage and Zsolt helps her dispose of the baby’s corpse, they are spotted by one of the other children who tells the police. Juli is taken to a prison hospital, where she hangs herself. Zsolt then takes his revenge on the informant. His life takes a turn for the better when his grandmother is hospitalized and he comes to the attention of a kindly policeman.
_____________

I love Budapest
Abstract: Aniko, a 19-year-old country girl moves to the city with her friend Moni. She meets Miki, a handsome security guard. Moni’s boyfriend offers Miki a job, and Miki accepts to impress Aniko. But she soon discovers he’s involved in an underworld of crime and violence.
_____________

Colossal sensation
Abstract: Colossal sensation is a 2005 art house hit from veteran Hungarian filmmaker Robert Koltai, a master of political and social farce. A deft blend of comedy and pathos, Colossal sensation balances the tumultuous lives of twin circus clowns against watershed moments in 20th century Hungarian history. Born and raised in a gypsy circus somewhere in the backwaters of Eastern Europe, twin brothers and clowns Naphthalene and Dodo fall afoul of the local Communist Party when a joke goes awry. “Older” brother Dodo takes the fall for his hapless brother and lands in the gulag for the offense. Meanwhile, Naphthalene becomes a prop man for a rural theater and involuntarily sets in motion events that lead to the 1956 Budapest revolution. Amid the chaos, Naphthalene sets out to free his brother from prison, with an attractive young hitchhiker along for the ride.
_____________

Adoption [DVD] = Örökbefogadás
General Note: Title from container.
Originally released as a motion picture in 1975.
Abstract: The story of a lonely woman who finds love in the companionship of a young girl and learns about womanhood and friendship in the process.
_____________

Father, diary of one week [DVD] : Apa, egy hit naplój
General Note: Originally released as a motion picture in 1966.
A foreign film (Hungary).
Abstract: A “contemporary” Hungarian film about the years after World War II. A young man tries to discover the truth about his father.
_____________

The last blues
General Note: Title from container.
Originally released as a motion picture in 2002.
Special features: Original theatrical trailer.
Abstract: Andris is a husband, father, and successful businessman. But he leads a double life. While pretending to be away on business in Poland, he spends half the year with his girlfriend, living the life of an artist. But soon both lives catch up to him.
_____________

Men on the mountain (this sounds like it’s more about Romanians but they speak Hungarian)
General Note: Title from container.
Based on the stories by Jozsef Nyirö.
Originally released as a motion picture in 1942.
Abstract: A woodcutter moves his family into the serene Transylvanian mountains in search of a better life, but finds tragedy instead. Unlike most wartime films, this film captures daily environmental hardships, and greatly influenced emerging Italian Neorealists.
_____________

Here are some additional suggestions from our readers:

The Moleman film series is from Hungary. Silard Matusik filmmaker.

Underworld movies — a movie franchise from the early 2000s with Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman. It’s about a vampire coven and werewolves. The first one was entirely filmed in and throughout Hungary and the other 3 movies only filmed parts there, but in the 2nd movie Underworld Revolution it talks a little more about the founding father being a Hungarian man, and they possibly talk a little in Hungarian.

Stranger than Paradise Jim Jarmusch director 1984

The Usual Suspects Bryan Singer director with Kevin Spacey. 1995

Sunshine Istvan Szabo director 1999

I Spy Betty Thomas director 2002

Time Stands Still (1982) “Megáll az idö” (original title)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Brady’s Escape Hosszú vágta (1984)

Music Box (1989)

An American Rhapsody (2001)

The English Patient

Dracula (1931) (They speak a few lines of Hungarian at the beginning of the film).

Indul a bakterház

Immortal Beloved (1994)

Tutajosok (1989)
To Be a Jew In 1880’s Hungary

Hukkle — very nice scenery and interesting to watch but only a few words are spoken in this Hungarian movie

Red King, White Knight is a 1989 spy thriller TV movie starring Tom Skerritt, Max von Sydow, and Helen Mirren. It was written by Ron Hutchinson and directed by Geoff Murphy. It was broadcast in the USA on 25 November 1989. Filmed in Budapest, Hungary and Washington DC.

Mephisto is the title of a 1981 film adaptation of Klaus Mann’s novel Mephisto, directed by István Szabó, and starring Klaus Maria Brandauer as Hendrik Höfgen. The film was a co-production between companies in West Germany, Hungary and Austria.

White God — When young Lili is forced to give up her beloved dog Hagen because its mixed-breed heritage is deemed “unfit” by The State, she and the dog begin a dangerous journey back towards each other. At the same time, all the unwanted, unloved and so-called “unfit” dogs rise up under a new leader, Hagen, the one-time house-pet who has learned all too well from his “Masters” in his journey through the streets and animal control centers that man is not always dog’s best friend.

Son of Saul — OSCAR WINNER! Best Foreign Film 2016. In this searing drama, a concentration camp inmate tasked with burning the dead discovers the body of his young son, and must choose between participating in the clandestine uprising being planned among the prisoners, or securing a proper Jewish burial for his child.

You can also do a search through Internet Movie Data Base (imdb.com) for other Hungarian related films and check through Netflix or iTunes or Wikipedia.

We love to help you discover, celebrate, and share Hungarian heritage! To receive the latest Magyar Marketing catalog, please call 1-800-786-7851 so we can get your name and mailing address and we will send one to you! Click here to check out the Magyar Marketing website!