The ELTE University Film Club, with the support of the National Cultural Fund (NKA) and the Hungarian Documentary Filmmakers’ Association (MADOKE), is launching a screening series of documentary films by Hungarian filmmakers. The next screening will feature Tamás Almási’s 1995 film Barren.
Date: 14 September 2026, 7.00 pm
Venue: ELTE University Square Campus, Emilia Weiss Hall (1053 Budapest, Egyetem tér 1–3, ground floor)
For more than 160 years, Ózd was one of the most important centres of Hungarian heavy industry. The dismantling of the Ózd Metallurgical Works began at a rapid pace during the transition to democracy. How does a proud industrial town become a battleground for survival? How does the identity of an entire region crumble in an instant, and what remains of a person when they are stripped of their work, their dignity and their future?
One of the most harrowing pieces in Tamás Almási’s epoch-making Ózd series guides the viewer into the raw and unvarnished reality of post-regime-change Hungary. As a historical snapshot, it depicts the period following the collapse of the steel industry, where locals scavenge through the slag heaps, struggling to survive and make ends meet. The film’s uncomfortable truths are well illustrated by the fact that, during filming, the authorities temporarily banned the crew from Ózd. The film depicts the traumatic and bleak period between 1992 and 1995, following the closure of the factory.
Guests at the post-screening discussion include Tamás Almási, a Kossuth and Béla Balázs Prize-winning Hungarian film director, screenwriter, cinematographer and university lecturer, who directed the film, Zsombor Farkas, a lecturer at the Institute of Social Studies, ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences, and Gábor Gelencsér, a habilitated associate professor at the Department of Film Studies, ELTE Faculty of Humanities.
The screening is also open to participants from outside ELTE organisations.
