Benedek Fliegauf

[who Dealer (2004) is aimed at] Basically the people who have experienced the grey moor of depression and know what it means to be burnt out, who know what weariness, indifference, unbearable loneliness and a lack of motivation mean. The main character, the dealer, constantly passes these stations. In my view, the film has a very strong spiritual element that can provide a very special experience for people for whom evil is a kind of spiritual embodiment rather than a psychological construct.[2004] Show less «

I really like symmetrical forms. I'm always excited by a work that's perfectly symmetrical or has a fractal quality. It means that the smallest part is just like the largest.[2014] Show less «

[on the filmmakers that most inspire him] The Dardenne brothers, Miranda July, and Paul Greengrass.[2014] Show less «

[on Tejút (2007)] I did want it to be episodic or mosaic-like in its structure. I thought it would be something like Otar Iosseliani. I didn't think that it would be something as meditative as it turned out. When I made the first studies I realised that this film was not just about the stories but about the psychological position of meditation. I am very happy with the result because I think it is very complex and there are so many levels on which the film is working. We were not sure about the film when it came to convincing the producer about these very bizarre, sometimes funny stories told with a very fixed camera. So that is why we needed to make some early studies and then we figured out what we could do once we watched them back. The producers and I were totally satisfied with the results and we decided to make the final film. It was a very short picture to make. (...) First of all I would use a very simple video camera and we would make very detailed studies and rehearsals at the locations. Then, when we arrived at the locations with the full crew and the super 35mm camera I would know exactly what needed to be done because I had already made it with the studies. It was quite simple because one scene would be done in one day, sometimes two. (...) The hardest part of the film was to find the locations. The atypical Hungarian landscapes. It was very hard to find these in the Budapest area. As we found new locations the concept itself changed. For me there is a parallel between the story, the image and the metaphysical. There are three different languages on top of each other. I was very deep into Zen Buddhism when I made this film. My wife was pregnant with my son and somehow I was totally crazy about the Buddhist philosophy.[2008] Show less «

The works of Béla Tarr mean a great deal to me, as do the films of Ildikó Enyedi, Miklós Jancsó, György Pálfi and György Fehér. In the closing credits to Dealer (2004), I thank Béla Tarr, David Lynch, Bret Easton Ellis, the group Portishead and Sergio Leone for the immeasurable inspiration they gave me. Without them, "Dealer" would have become a very different film.[2004] Show less «

The first completed project of my own was the short film Beszélö fejek (2001)... that film already contained everything I would like to deal with over the next decade. Show less «

[on Dealer (2004)] We wanted to create a necropolis completely removed from our terrestrial topography. Our aim was to keep the viewer guessing about where exactly we were. At the end of the film, it isn't even certain anymore whether or not the story took place on our planet. You suddenly suspect that what you saw was the memory of a man with a particularly vivid imagination floating between life and death.[2004] Show less «

The people who saw Dealer (2004) and who read my interviews said, "are you a Buddhist?" and I told them no, what is a Buddhist? And in looking for Buddhism and Zen I found out that yes indeed I am a Buddhist. Which is very interesting as the Buddhists say that this is the most authentic way to find the Buddhist path, when you find it alone not through any books. This is a parallel to me as I was always crazy about minimalist art and minimalism in music and painting in a metaphysical way which is almost Buddhist.[2008] Show less «

My first feature was a Dogme movie (Rengeteg (2003)) with non professional actors and was quite a successful film. We won the Wolfgang Staudte prize at the Berlinale 2002 which, for a first feature, I was extremely lucky with. Then I made my second feature, Dealer (2004). This was a little bit over awarded as a movie by film festivals. It was a more conventional film but it was 160 minutes long with an epic story line. It had a similar mosaic-like structure to "Forest". Tejút (2007) happened while I was preparing my new film Womb (2012) - which I have been working on for four years. It was taking such a long time that I wondered what was going on, as I am usually quite quick at making films. So I decided I was going to make a film before "Womb" and that was "Milky Way".[2008] Show less «

[on the extensive dialogue in Dealer (2004)] The real problem, in my view, is that artificial lighting and similar techniques can't dissect the human soul as well as the spoken word. After all, it was the spoken word that created and developed human civilisation. I think that the real conflicts of life can be deduced from discussions and therefore [are] represented the most expressively through dialogue. All thought has verbal origins.[2004] Show less «

[his advise for young filmmakers] In workshops I always like to tell the students, that they are themselves their biggest adversary. At the beginning art consists in finding a form that makes your ideas work. I don't have this problem myself anymore, but that wasn't the case then. I think, now is the time of guerilla filmmaking! Who has no opportunities, shall take his handy-cam, go on the street and start filming. My first film was made underground with a cheap camera.[2013] Show less «

I've seen the Dogma films - my favourite is Festen (1998) by Thomas Vinterberg -, and was very pleased that people in other countries were trying to break with Hollywood-style filmmaking. They express my sentiments entirely. By the way, it's not true that this approach is completely alien to Hungarian filmmaking. The world-famous Budapest Film School followed exactly the same principles as the Dogma movement, producing important masterpieces like Családi tüzfészek (1979) by Béla Tarr and Vörös föld (1982) by László Vitézy. That is why Hungarian cinematographers see Dogma as a western European version of 1970s documentary filmmaking.[2003] Show less «

[on making Womb (2010)] Actually it was kind of easy. We sent the script to Eva [Eva Green], she read the script, she liked it and she said: The script of "Womb" is really original, I would like to see the director's previous films. So we sent them. At that time I was worried, because so far I made hardcore art-house films only. But Eva loved my films, especially Tejút (2007), so she wished to meet me. We've met, the chemistry worked very well, so she signed the contract. Matt [Matt Smith] wasn't 'Doctor Who' when we signed the contract. It happened later. He also loved the script and we had fun together during the casting process. So I would say, a good script is a first step.[2010] Show less «

If you watch my films, they are all very different. Maybe the core is the same, but the surface and even most of what lies underneath it is very diverse. After Dealer (2004), everybody wanted me to continue making gloomy and hypnotic films in abandoned factories. When I made Womb (2010), the same thing happened. If I have something forcing me to go in one direction, I usually try to go in the opposite direction.[2013] Show less «

If I don't make at least one film a year, I go crazy. I feel like a zombie. I had carried the screenplay for Rengeteg (2003) ("Forest") around with me for quite some time, and one day I was lucky enough to stumble across a brilliant cameraman (Zoltán Lovasi) and more importantly an understanding producer (András Muhi) who secured the financial basis for the project.(...)I was certainly concerned that things might get difficult. But the Raptors' Collective - the film's design team - solved this problem thanks to their painstaking, three month-long search for suitable locations. In general, it's fair to say that the preparatory stage is the most time-consuming part of making a Dogma film. This was also the case with "Forest". (...) The selection and screen testing of actors took three months. It was arduous work that took far longer than shooting itself.[2003] Show less «

[on Rengeteg (2003)] It was very low budget. The actors were friends of mine. The audiences think that the actors are professionals. "Forest" has been compared to Festen (1998) but "Festen" was made with professional actors whereas "Forest" was not. They are normal people who were from my surroundings. With non actors I cast very close to the character but I had to change my attitude for using professional actors, where I work with someone who can pretend to be this character. I am a little nervous about this process but I respect the actors and the actresses. I was in a very hard situation when I started to make films. I was a self-made man and I had not been to university. I wasn't professional. I had been working as a first assistant director before I made my first film. The film community was very difficult to get into and so my position was not so good to make my first film and so I had to use non-actors. But I always want to learn something new. When I finished "Forest" they said to me that I should make more Dogme movies because I am the only one making these films [in Hungary]. But I said no; I want to work with professional actors. It is a lesson. When I finished Dealer (2004), which people think is in between Béla Tarr, Roy Andersson and Andrei Tarkovsky with these very long shots and lots of doom and gloom, they said to me, this is very unique. You are the new Bela Tarr. I said, no way, I would like to do something else - Tejút (2007) - and now I am doing something totally new with this film also. I am a student of film.[2008] Show less «

[on Csak a szél (2012)] My aim was to be with the victims. I wanted to feel what they felt, and even more I wanted to express what they felt: to be haunted by these murderers and live this danger all day long just for being a Roma.[2013] Show less «

Minimalism is the form and transcendence the content. Sometimes I'm surprised to discover how simply that can be expressed. In my view, less is nearly always more. The most important phrase in my current philosophy is "Everything is one." Those who believe this are of the opinion that a brown banana skin says just as much about Man and the unfathomable secrets of the universe as does the splendid interior of St. Peter's.[2004] Show less «

I love 1 (2009). Pater Sparrow is a lunatic and sensitive guy - I like his way of dreaming. It is spooky to see how the Hungarian New Wave create imaginary worlds. György Pálfi, Kornél Mundruczó, Szabolcs Hajdu, even Ágnes Kocsis movies haven't got any direct connection with the Hungarian society at all. If you look at my films, well... So with unknown reason we are more inspired by our own dreams rather than by the outside world. Let's compare it with the Romanian New Wave! Strange. I am saying this, even though my next project [Csak a szél (2012)] will be a social cinema.[2010] Show less «

I love the Dardenne Brothers - this pure realism is amazing.[2008]

I was a very difficult kid. I hated school and skipped home at 14. I was a real deviant. I thought nothing will ever become of me. Show less «

[director's statement for Dealer (2004)] It was important to create a kind of hypnotic atmosphere because the film takes place not in Budapest, but in an imaginary city with an almost spiritual atmosphere. This necropolis is the actual main character of the film. As the film unfolds, the viewer gradually gets the impression that this person is suspended between life and death in this spiritual space. The other characters are ghosts, strange zombies condemned to follow the dealer's suffering behind rigid, marionette-like masks. The dealer's personal tragedy gradually unveils a kind of mosaic of micro-dramas that will undoubtedly ring true for both victims of the drug sub-culture and those familiar with it, no matter how stylised the situations may be. During shooting, all the filmcrew (i.e. the cameramen, set designers, sound crew and directors) pursued the same goal of conjuring up this spiritual, apocalyptic atmosphere. "Dealer" is about decay. It attempts to address all those for whom depression isn't merely a surmountable adolescent phase, but a terrible state of consciousness.[2004] Show less «