Screenplay: Zita Palóczi, Katalin Moldovai
Photography: András Táborosi
Editing: Orsolya Soltész
Music: Tibor Cári
Sound: Gábor Kerekes
Art Director, Costume Designer: Gyopár Bocskay
Cast: Ágnes Krasznahorkai, Tünde Skovrán, Áron Dimény, Soma Sándor, Zsolt Bölönyi, Ágnes Lőrincz, Anna Szász
Produced by: Magma Cinema
Co-produced by: Spot Film, Salamandra Film
Supported by: Hungarian National Film Institute Incubator Program
World Sales: NFI World Sales
Ana, a literature teacher is being accused of misconduct for suggesting Agnieszka Holland’s 1995 Total Eclipse to her 17-year-old students so they can better understand Rimbaud’s work and life. The movie contains homosexuality, which the parent objects to. Ana starts a struggle to justify herself, and this causes an absurd chain reaction. The school’s principal, Eva slowly withdraws, and this heavily affects the working relationships. The scandal that follows has unforeseeable consequences upon Ana’s life, and the life of the student, Viktor, whose father made the complaint. As the case ends up in different court investigations postsocialist fixations comes to surface, and the air around Ana and Viktor slowly disappear. The film was presented at the latest Toronto and Warsaw film festivals, where it won Best Film in the Competition for First and Second Feature Films.
“The inspiration for the movie stemmed from a newspaper article I came across a few years ago. What captivated me was the sheer absurdity of the story. For a decade, no one had expressed any concerns about the teacher’s methods of teaching. She was a dedicated individual striving for excellence, firmly believing in the paramount importance of education. However, a complaint from a student’s father triggered a series of absurd events that raised profound questions within me. How is it possible for someone’s life to be utterly shattered for no valid reason? What influence does our Eastern European heritage have on our daily lives, and how does it manifest itself?” (K. Moldovai)
Katalin Moldovai
Film director and screenwriter Katalin Moldovai was born in 1982 in Dés, Romania. She completed her BA degree at the Sapientia Transylvanian Hungarian University in Cluj- Napoca in 2013, in film-photo-media studies. She earned her MA degree in directing at the Budapest Metropolitan University. She has directed short films and a documentary. Without Air is her first feature film.
2012 A barátkozás lehetőségei cm / sf 2013 Burok cm / sf; Szezon után (After Season) cm / sf; Premi / Awards: 20. National Student Film Festival Budapest – Miglior cortometraggio / Best Short Film 2014 Jegyesek cm / sf 2015 Asszonyok feketében cm / sf 2018 Ahogy eddig (As Up to Now) cm / sf 2019 Peremvidéken doc 2023 Elfogy a levegő (Without Air); Premi / Awards: Warsaw FF – Miglior film Concorso 1-2, Premio FIPRESCI, Premio FIPRESCI Giovani / Best Film Competition 1-2 , FIPRESCI Prize, Young FIPRESCI Prize
