2003 - Hungary - 91 min. - Feature, Color
AKA Forest (Eng. Translation title)
Director Benedek Fliegrauf
Genre/Type Avant-garde / Experimental, Drama, Ensemble Film
Artistic/ Production Styles Non-linear, Episode Film
Tones Claustrophobic, Disturbing, Eerie, Enigmatic, Lyrical, Talky
Moods Mindbenders
Negative Format 35 mm
Hungarian director Benedek Fliegauf makes his feature-length debut with Rengeteg (Forest). Shot on digital video, the episodic film is composed of a series of seven different intimate parts bookended by footage of the same people in a large public space. These characters aren't given an introduction, context, or even character names. Cinematographer Zoltan Lovasi shoots the ensemble cast of non-actors exclusively in close-ups, so the larger situation is never made completely clear. Each segment involves a small group of people in some kind of intense and possibly disturbing conversation. — Andrea LeVasseur