[...]

The cameraman Tamás Sas makes his debut as a director at this festival. The basic idea of his film, Bar, is simple enough: the entire movie is recorded from a fixed camera position. Everything we see in this 90-minute film takes place in the bar or in front of it, as seen through the window. The scene is a typical Budapest locale and the story is a single-location tale; the filmmakers took a serious risk in hoping that audiences, accustomed to the visual variety in cinema language, would put up with a homogeneous visual world throughout the film, and that a story-line and swift dialogue delivered by good actors would be able to hold their attention.
It is a brave and risky undertaking, as there are not too many directors who can present contemporary characters speaking in such an entertaining, interesting and authentic manner--not to mention the fact that we are not all that well provided with good actors, either. For this reason, the film is a pleasant surprise. In watching Bar, we really feel that we are sitting there, listening to the three girl friends describe what has happened to them and witnessing a talkative TV editor picking them up, exploiting them and ruining them in succession. From the dialogue, as well as from what happens at neighbouring tables, an exciting and realistic tableau of what is going on in the country right now is presented to us, and that alone is a rare achievement.
Bar is an immaculately directed film, with some excellent acting and occasional flashes of classical dramaturgy: an excellent period piece on the private sphere.

[...]

I've left the amazing competition entry by a young woman in her early twenties, Juli Sára, to the end. Daddy Wins, her diploma work, was based on a short story by Mihály Kornis, one of the enfants terribles of Hungarian writing. How is it possible to create magical realism from home-made material? How is it possible to tell a chilling story about death in the clichéd language of chansons? What does it mean to be a Jew in Hungary? These are questions answered in the original story. What makes the movie version different, and perhaps more powerful, is the unbelievable confidence with which Juli Sára is able to get various prominent Hungarian actors to produce mannerless, authentic and moving characters. In forty immaculate minutes, the past fifty years of Hun gary's past have been captured, which is an astounding achievement even from someone who is suspected to be a prodigy.
Shot in black and white, Daddy Wins is a movie with complex characters and figures; as a result of the absurd opening situation, the dead narrator can speak about the most fundamental issues of life in a conversational tone: "It is an outrage to die. You need no coffee anymore. You need no cigarettes anymore. That is the good part of it. But never forget: 'Life according to T. It is good.' "
We can be certain that we will be hearing more of and from Juli Sára.