One of the most influential artists in Hollywood with an oeuvre that includes Casablanca, Mihály Kertész (Michael Curtiz) made several silent films in Hungary in the 1910s. None but two of these films have survived in their entirety, which is what makes The Exile, whose copy came to light only recently, under the most surprising conditions, a true rarity in cinematic history.

Made exactly 100 years ago, this is the only Hungarian film to feature the theatre legend, Mari Jászai. It will be shown with a score newly written by Attila Pacsay, a composer of film music with an international renown, who has distinguished himself mostly with the “tonal palette” of animation films – including the Oscar-nominated Maestro –, and who works with such directors as Ferenc Rofusz, Ferenc Cakó and Géza M. Tóth.
The script of The Exile was written by Jenő Janovics, director of the Kolozsvár (Cluj) National Theatre. The shooting took place from early June till mid-July, on locations in Kolozsvár, Torockó, the Torda Gorge, and the banks of the Aries (Aranyos). Filmmaking was, so to speak, a sideline for the theatre, and was consequently restricted to the summer off-season. In the course of five summers, Janovics produced as many as seventy-two feature films. The directors who started their careers under his guidance included Sándor (Alexander) Korda, and Mihály Kertész received his first important jobs from him. Janovics recorded on film some of the greatest actors of his time, as the already mentioned Jászai, Lujza Blaha and István Szentgyörgyi.

Presented by: Palace of Arts, Hungarian National Film Fund, ManDa