4 January 2024
Hungarian director and Oscar winner István Szabó as a guest at the Akademie der Künste
Film premiere and archive presentation
Tuesday, 9 January 2024, 7 pm
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin
>> Press tickets available at presse@adk.de, tel. 030 200 57-1514
On Tuesday, 9 January 2024, István Szabó presents his most recent film Final Report (Zárójelentés, 2020) as a German premiere at the Akademie der Künste. The film is a subtle reckoning with the current situation in Hungary, which is characterised by a climate of mistrust and fear. Starring the Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, Final Report ties into the trilogy Mephisto (1981), Colonel Redl (1985) and Hanussesn (1988). The films deliver multifaceted psychograms that depict creeping corruption, opportunism and treachery under repressive conditions of power. Since 1980, Szabó has worked primarily on international co-productions featuring stars such as Glenn Close, Harvey Keitel and Stellan Skarsgård. Szabó also writes the screenplay for most of his films. Regardless of the diversity of his topics and the grand historical backdrop, he always focuses specifically on the individual actions of his characters. With his latest film, as with all of his films since 1980, he worked with cameraman Lajos Koltai.
On the occasion of the film’s premiere, the director is handing over parts of his archive to the Akademie der Künste, including the screenplays to The Taste of Sunshine (1999), Taking Sides (2001) and Final Report (2020). Following the screening, István Szabó will speak with Ulrich Gregor, longstanding head of the Berlinale’s International Forum of Young Cinema and member of the Akademie der Künste, about his filmic oeuvre.
István Szabó was born on 18 February 1938 in Budapest, where he lives to this day. He is one of the co-founders of the European Film Academy and since 1984 a member of the Akademie der Künste’s Film and Media Arts Section.
Awards (selection): Oscar in the category Best Foreign Language Film for Mephisto (1981), Golden Film Reel and BAFTA award for Colonel Redl (1985), Golden Palm in Cannes for Hanussen (1988[pr1] ), Best Screenplay (together with Israel Horowitz) for The Taste of Sunshine (1999), German Directors Award Metropolis for his life work (2014), Honorary Ecumenical Jury Prize of the Locarno Film Festival (2023).
Event information
István Szabó: Final Report
Film premiere and archive presentation
Tue 9 January 2024, 7 pm, admission €6/4
Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, 10557 Berlin
Zárójelentés / Final Report, director and screenplay writer: István Szabó, with Klaus Maria Brandauer, Dorottya Udvaros, HU 2020, 115 min., Hungarian original version with English subtitles
Welcome address: Jeanine Meerapfel, Archive handover: Werner Heegewaldt, talks with István Szabó, Ulrich Gregor
Press tickets can be reserved by calling 030 200 57-1514 or sending an email to presse@adk.de.
For enquiries:
Conny Klauß, Secretary of the Film and Media Arts Section, klauss@adk.de, T+49(0)30 200 57-15 51
Werner Heegewaldt, Director of the Archives, archivdirektion@adk.de,
T +49(0)30 200 57-3101