Péter Bergendy’s horror movie received invitations to Brussels, Porto Alegre, Sao Paolo and Porto too.
Completely unique, absolutely terrifying, and thoroughly Hungarian. Péter Bergendy’s latest movie is a brave new leap for the domestic film industry to compete on the international horror scene. The sadly neglected and – from a local perspective – niche genre received an unexpected chance to shine in the limelight when the Nemzeti Filmalap (National Film Fund) decided to finance most of the movie’s budget. Now, after five previous ones, it will be competing in four more international festivals!
These include the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival or BIFFF between April 6-18, two Brazilian ones, Fantaspoa in Porto Alegre and Cinefantasy in Sao Paolo, held in April 9-18 and 18-29, respectively. The last one will be Fantasporto in Porto, starting in the 26th of April and ending in the 4th of May. Due to ongoing global events, these will be held online, so keep an eye on them, if you want to watch Bergendy’s supernatural story!
The movie’s plot is set in rural Hungary. The Great War just ended; the Spanish flu pandemic subsided. But many corpses were left unburied, their souls stuck in our world. And their cries are getting louder and louder until they find some peace….
In the cold winter of 1918, photographer Tomás (Viktor Klem) tries to make a living by making one last picture of the recently passed among their grieving families (these post-mortem photographs were indeed “fashionable” at the time – TN). By the invitation from a 10-year old girl (Fruzsina Hais), he visits a small village, where he finds an unexpected abundance of clients. In the meantime, he encounters things that are beyond any reasonable explanation. The lost souls seemingly try to convey some sort of message for him, and he decides to find out what exactly are they trying to tell him. But his walking on thin ice; every wrong step along the way provokes another, more brutal attack.
“Post Mortem” made its debut last year at the most prestigious horror and fantasy film festival in Sitges, at the same time as its International premier in Warsaw. It was followed by four invitations to San Sebastian, Malaga, Lublin and to Trieste, where it received the award for the Best Film from RAI4 and the jury’s Méliès d’argent Award.
“It’s a fantastic feeling, that thanks to participating in these festivals, our movie will reach other European countries as well. I’ve received many personal requests from organizers of horror festival, because they wanted to show our movie on the big screen. But even then, the most important thing would be to be able to screen it at home, after the virus settles down. To show it in Hungary, to a Hungarian audience in the cinemas, as it was intended to.” – said director Péter Bergendy.
In the lead we have Viktor Klem and Fruzsina Hais, supported by Zsolt Anger, Judit Schell, Gabriella Hámori, Diána Magdolna Kiss, Mari Nagy, Ildikó Tóth and Kossuth Prize recipients Andrea Ladányi and Gábor Reviczky.
The crew members included cinematographer András Nagy, editor István Király, and composer Attila Pacsay. The screenplay was written by Piros Zánkai based on the story by director Péter Bergendy and creative producer Gábor Hellebrandt.
The film’s international trailer is available below:
