IFFR 2023 Featured Programs

Vanja Kaludjercic, Festival Director: “Our Focus programs give us the opportunity to celebrate the remarkable work and careers of filmmakers who don’t always get the attention they deserve. We continue our search for the improbable, be it Hungarian documentaries in the countryside of the seventies, performative’extended cinemaor Japanese anime. IFFR is where the unexpected shines.”

Focus: Judit Elek

IFFR is honored to present an extensive retrospective of Hungarian filmmaker and writer Judit Elek, whose career has received little attention despite screenings at festivals like Cannes. Elek’s work is often about political oppression and being Jewish. The program includes a hard and unsalted look at a dying relationship Maybe tomorrow (1979), sarcastic historical narration The Trial of Martinovics and the Hungarian Jacobins (1981) and Saying the unspeakable – Elie Wiesel’s message (1996), a documentary about the Holocaust. Elek is in Rotterdam to launch and sign a book about her life and career, specially commissioned by IFFR.

Maybe tomorrowJudit Elek, 1979, Hungary

A couple in love, but married to each other. What to do? People hiss and shout truths and insults at each other in a world that seems to consist entirely of filthy, dilapidated houses. A downward spiral that culminates in the stale heat of desire.