Cinema
Stephen, the King
István, a király
Gábor Koltay · 1984
Synopsis
Prince Géza has married his son István to Gizella, who came from Bavaria, and with her have arrived Christian missionaries and German knights. Géza dies. Koppány, a chieftain who has stayed faithful to the old gods, claims power and, according to custom, sends to ask for the hand of the prince's widow, Sarolt, who has his messenger hanged. István, for his part, has sworn on his father's grave to follow the way of Rome. The people are divided between the two men, and from one camp to the other the same question returns: and you, whom would you choose?
Context
The rock opera by Levente Szörényi and János Bródy, drawn from a play by Miklós Boldizsár, Ezredforduló, had at first been planned for the cinema, on a commission from István Nemeskürty, who headed the Budapest studio of Mafilm. It was premiered on 18 August 1983 on a sledding hill in Budapest's City Park, renamed for the occasion King's Hill, two days before the nine-hundredth anniversary of the king's canonisation; since 1950, 20 August had officially been the festival of the constitution and of the new bread. There were seven performances, which more than a hundred thousand people saw, and the applause went on long after the national anthem. The film was shot during these evenings.
Who it is for
An open-air spectacle filmed on the hill itself, cut to the rhythm of the songs, with rapid cuts, slow motion and effects.
Prizes and reception
Presented at the Critics' Week of the Cannes Film Festival in 1984, and seen in Hungarian cinemas by more than a million spectators.
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