Budapest Film

Vili fakes illness so he doesn't have to take a math test. Instead, he starts shooting at sparrows from the window with an air rifle. The kindly old lady who feeds the birds turns out to be a real-life fairy who tries to turn Vili into a good boy.

1997. Young car mechanic Iván lives in a godforsaken village in eastern Hungary. He looks after his mentally disabled sister Eszter and earns extra money smuggling diesel oil from Ukraine. The siblings' coexistence is disrupted by a tragic event, Eszter is raped. A police investigation gets under way; in the meantime, Iván starts up a relationship with young Ilus, who has just finished school and is planning on going to the university. Iván plainly wants to leave his old life behind him, but will he be able to fulfill this ambition? - Written by Warsaw Film Festival

Lt. Kojak arrives in Budapest as a guest speaker for the 'International Crime Writers Conference'. Soon after he starts enjoying the pleasures that the city has to offer, he assists his old friends at the police department with a case. The case involves solving the murder of a noted scientist, unaware that a Mafia hit man and his female companion are targeting him.

The corrupt leaders of a small rural town learn that an auditor is coming from St Petersburg. Frightened, they try to put things in order. Hlesztakov, a Petersburg official, has been starving for days in his inn in the small town, having gambled away all his money and no credit. In a misunderstanding and a bit of backstabbing, the town's corrupt leaders mistake him for an auditor. The bureau chiefs are watching his every move, and the mayor's daughter is a hit. When he leaves, the whole town celebrates and expects him back for a wedding. But a letter reveals the fraud, and at the same time the real auditor arrives.

The Empty King created a mythical figure and a whole world from grotesque, archetypal images. The drama was originally conceived as a student tirade against a teacher at Jarry's school, the Lyceum of Rennes. This teacher, Hébert, was the target of public ridicule. In 1888, at the age of 15, Jarry wrote a puppet play about the exploits of the Woolly Tartar and staged it to the amusement of his friends. The figure of Übü is a crude, cruel caricature of the foolish, selfish bourgeoisie as seen through the unrelenting gaze of a schoolboy; but this Rabelaisian figure, in all his falstaffian greed and cowardice, is more than a mere social satire. It is a terrifying picture of man's animal nature, his evil and cruelty. The Katona József Theatre in Budapest premiered Jarry's play in 1984, and it ran continuously for more than 10 years.

In the week of the book an interview is made with the writer Péter Simon, whose first book of short stories appeared in the prime of his life.