Hungary's Fliegauf emerges as Central European star in Berlin

Feb 16, 2012, 11:33 GMT

Berlin - Hungarian director Bence Fliegauf has emerged as the standard-bearer for Central European cinema at this year's Berlin Film Festival.

His story of a gypsy family under attack by racists screened Thursday in the Berlinale's main competition.

The movie, Csak a Szel (Just the Wind) is one of 18 films competing for the Berlinale's coveted Golden Bear for best picture.

Starring Lajos Sarkany, Katalin Toldi, Gyongyi Lendvai and Gyorgy Toldi, Just the Wind is inspired by an actual series of killings in Hungary that claimed the lives of eight people in less than a year.

Speaking at a press conference in Berlin, Fliegauf hit back at critics who claim that his film casts Hungary in a bad a light.

'It is more important to show that artists are free to criticize their country,' Fliegauf said.

He believes that a country should be able to confront its taboos in much the same way that Germany faced up to the horrors of the Holocaust after World War II.

'I hope that my film will do something for the image of my country,' he said.

Sometimes part-documentary, Fliegauf's movie conjures up all the menace facing the Roma in Hungary.

'We wanted to make a film that is not part of a police investigation,' he told reporters.

This is the third time that Fliegauf has been selected to screen a film at the Berlinale. His previous movies shown in Berlin were Dealer in 2004 and Rengeteg in 2003.

The festival is also screening the world premieres of German director Michael Glasner's Gnade (Mercy) and Danish filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel's En Kongelig Affaere.