Major Hungarian success at the Venice Film Festival
Gábor Fabricius’ film Erasing Frank was awarded the prize for the most innovative film at the Venice International Film Festival.
According to the summary, the critics’ award ceremony was held on Friday evening, where Gábor Fabricius personally received the trophy for the most innovative work in the selection for directing his first feature film. The Venice Film Critics‘ Selection has previously seen the debuts of now-legendary directors such as Kevin Reynolds, Olivier Assayas, Mike Leigh, Bryan Singer, Harmony Korine, Peter Mullan, Abdellatif Kechiche and Oscarnominee Bruce Weber and Oscarwinner Kenneth Lonergan.
“It is a great honor to receive the International Critics’ Prize in Venice. I dedicate the prize to the talents of the people the film is about, who have been ruined by an era in which they had no future. They were driven out, silenced, or bought off in the decades of socialism – without them, the world became a more empty and grey place. We from here in the future remember them with this dystopian film, while not forgetting those who erased Frank“, the statement quotes Gábor Fabricius.
“Erasing Frank”, made with the support of the National Film Institute, is set in 1983, behind the Iron Curtain. Frank, the frontman of an underground band, cannot fit into the Orwellian silence of socialism. He is sent to a psychiatric hospital, where the regime secretly tries to silence its enemies. A serious trip begins, searching for answers to the fateful dilemmas of society.
The film stars Benjamin Fuchs, known as Filo, one of the most promising talents in Hungarian underground music, who was recently awarded the Starlight Prize. The film also stars Kincső Blénesi, a young Transylvanian actress who has already won several international awards, and Andrea Waskovics, a Junior Prima Award winner, in important roles, and other well-known actors such as Ildikó Bánsági, István “Papi” Lénárt, whose last film this is, Miklós Székely B., choreographer Pál Frenák, Tamás Pajor, Krisztián Peer and Andrea Ladányi.
The cinematography is by Tamás Dobos, the visual design by Eggert Ketilsson, Dorka Kiss, and Gábor Fabricius, the editing by Wanda Kiss and Bernadett Tuza-Ritter. Tamás Zányi was responsible for the sound and Judit Sinkovics for the costumes. Gábor Fabricius was advised by film director Gyula Gazdag.
Gábor Fabricius is a writer, film director, Cannes Golden Media Lion, EPICA, and CLIO award-winning media designer. He is an MA alumnus of Central-SainMartins College, London, and his previous works have a socially critical and documentary perspective. His short films (“Skinner”, “Dialogue”) have been invited to over 100 international film festivals, including Toronto, London, Boston, Mumbai, and have won awards. His novel Another Planet was published by Europa Books.
“Erasing Frank” was produced by Otherside Stories with the support of the National Film Institute.
