The late Hungarian film director Zoltan Fabri speaks to the Indian film critic Jugu Abraham in Budapest, Hungary, in 1982

Zoltan Fabri, 1917-94 (Courtesy: MUBI)

A. My parents were very poor. My father worked in a bank as a clerk. In the summer, I stayed with the common people. And the reason farmers are back in my films is because I learned so much about their lives. I went to school in town. I went to the College of Fine Arts. I wanted to be a painter. At that time the film was not taught in college. I was born a weak child. I had a problem with my removed drops, and I had a recurring heart failure.

A.I was born during World War I and have no recollection of that World War. We lived in poverty. I lived in a big house with a lot of people. During World War II, I was in college, on an academic background. In college, I excelled in poetry and wondered what I could do in the future. I had to choose between drawing and directing a play. In my sixth form, I did Julius Caesar and played Antony. But am I tired?

A. So I enrolled in the Art School. At the end of the third year, my father tried to find me a job. He got me a job as a photography teacher at one of the top schools. But I decided to leave college.

One evening, I approached my father, who was a barber, and informed him that I was leaving the School of Fine Arts and wanted to join the Theater College. My father chased me away like a madman with a razor in his hand for ten minutes. But after much persuasion, he agreed to let me try my first year of college drama. At the end of the year, my dad went to school to check on me. I was allowed to stay. I don’t have to explain why.

I finished school in 3 years, making it very clear that I did not want to be a player but a facilitator. I wrote the script for Ibsen’s play and made his own sets. And the show was very successful. The artwork went through all the stadiums in Budapest in one year.

Two days after receiving my degree, I received a letter from the National Theater to discuss my contract. In my first play at the National Theater, there were actors who were my college instructors.

A. In 1943, I was kept in custody until 1945. I had never met my relatives. I was single at the time. I am not married. I returned and discovered that Budapest had been bombed. As I approached my house, I found that all the houses nearby had been bombed, but my parents’ house had survived. I found them safe. It was hard to remember to reorganize. I returned to the theater and worked in all Budapest theaters as director, director, and sometimes actor.

A. I would choose a movie.

A. Twenty hours it was probably one. An Incomplete Sentence it was almost as if it had been written to me. I did not come from a dignified family, but what happened to me was about to happen to me.

A. in my films, I am talking about people who somehow had to go to war in history and had to go through tests of human behavior, research, research.

A. Although I have never been an artist, one can no longer relate to making black films after making black and white films.

A. I don’t think I’m good at inventing science fiction or anything but thinking about the future. Mu
An unfinished sentence, I talked about the future in a different way. The future is already in the film. The past and the present are in a very close relationship. You can not for example understand modern Hungarian without understanding the past. So, when I make an old movie, I want to connect with the viewers here.

Golden Peacock (IFFI) “Hungarians”

Q. Would you like to comment on your comments? Balint Fabian meets God when you make Hungarian people? Hungarian people in time it must come later Balint Fabian meets God.

A. That was not my idea. Studios that want me to do Hungarian people I knew I wanted to make a film for Balint Fabian. I told them it had to happen on time Balint Fabian meets God that has to come first. But they reasoned Hungarian people to have more a global message. So they said, “How do you know if you’re going to finish Where is Fabian? Then why not make it Hungarian people first? “She was right Hungarian people had a future of a kind that was in a calm and pitiful state, with less thought and communication. At the same time, the characters in the film thought and acted in a global way without realizing it.

Last time Fifth Seal; drawing “the most important question in our lives” for Fabri

Q. Why did you pick up the book? Fifth Seal about the movie?

A. I took it in 1965. But there were cultural and political reasons, which were contrary to my motives for painting. First, they said it was a work in progress. I said that was not true at all. But he won. I graduated in 1975-76. It was good news for me to put it on screen. First, I was challenged by a story similar to the stage – almost anti-film. The second phase was more appropriate for cinema.

What impressed me most were the four or five little people who talked about survival and how one could go about being saved. As an adversary, there is a Fascist who teaches a young person to imitate others to achieve his goals. Third is the theory that all philosophies do not work — even small or Fascist governors.

A. This anti-theory theory led to a systematic approach that really impressed me. And the most important question in our lives is there.

A. I can’t make a strong religion acceptable to myself even though I went to religious school at an early age. I believe that religion has moral values; for me it is very important to examine a person’s character. Nor do I care about a person’s religion or whether he adheres to it. Good manners are very important.

An important event from Balint Fabian Meets God

A. Mu Balint Fabian meets God, Of course, Balint Fabian’s connection to religion is difficult. You can see if the self-sacrificing love of a man is meeting God. Is that not true?

A. I do not know.

A. The French leadership, yes, but Orson Welles touched me deeply. Welles could not continue what he did at the age of 25-Citizen Kane-which can be appreciated and enjoyed even today.

A. Probably because my outlook on life is more appealing to me than its joke. My thoughts on everyday life are complex, not funny. However, in Two Half Time In Hell and in The Tot family, I am approaching a dangerous border.

A. It is the close relationship I have with him. He is an artist that I love. It was my discovery, you might say. I used to play his songs when he was 21. Now he is 30 years old or almost that age.

Q. How do you feel Guys on Paul Street made in Hollywood?

A. I loved the message of the book. It was not my best movie. It was a “respectable” film.

A. You can choose between Prof Hannibal, Twenty Hours, Fifth Seal and Hungarian people.

The opening title of the Fabri “The Fifth Seal” is a song by Georgy Vukan: