Kalandorok

Long time has passed since I last saw a totally watchable and funny Hungarian film (it was "Csak szex és más semmi" directed by Krisztina Goda in 2005).

Kalandorok is about 3 men, a Transylvanian ex-teacher grandpa, his loser musician son and his even more loser grandson. The grandpa asks for help as her wife has gone mad, so his son & grandson leave for Transylvania with all their unspoken difficulties and lies. Through the road movie you can catch a glimpse of Transylvania (which is beautiful), its people and see good actors in good roles in a well-constructed story.

I laughed my head off. So will you if you like irony. 8)

This is a decent & funny road-movie even by international standards, the characters are cool, but to be honest, all I was looking at was the scenery. I live in Transylvania I know it and I love it, so this film was like a home-made video for me. It was just so awesome to watch an actual story taking place in places I knew too well; I was having fun by trying to identify where exactly each scene took place. I stopped many times in the same parking lot in the Bekas-straits, I know where that gypsy-palace is, I knew where that mine was and I kept recognizing the roads they were driving on. I know this is hardly relevant to anyone, I just felt like sharing, cause I sure had fun.

If you ask an erudite film admirer about Hungarian cinema,a definite reply would surely concern its over the top,sad,grim films made during the harsh times of communism.This is not something which Hungarian people enjoyed as in the past even their comedy films had a trace of communism in them.Now the situation is different for Hungarian cinema as current times have changed enormously and Hungarian nation has chosen to embrace capitalism and free market economy.All these changes have had a very significant impact on Hungarian cinema and various positive results are being made evident in new films which are coming out of Hungary.It is in this sense that we can all hail Paczolay Bela's film "Kalandorok" as a true comedy film from East European nation of Hungary.This film is very much relevant to all of us in the current period of economic turmoil where each penny is spent wisely by people all over the world.Kalandorok shows the economic mess in which some ordinary Hungarians have put themselves.The film is a grim reminder of how this economic upheaval impacts their family ties. Kalandorok can also be defined in an alternative manner as a sensible road movie with comic undertones.It features some particularly nice musical tracks such as About A Girl Kurt Cobain and a Hungarian version of the famous French song "Le Vent Nous Portera" by Noir Désir.Kalandorok is a comic film different from traditional psychological films for which Hungary has always been famous.This must be kept in mind if somebody decides to rent or watch this film.