The ELTE–NFI University Film Club screening and discussion series continues. We welcome university members from all ELTE faculties.

Budapest, spring 1989. Petya (Gábor Karalyos) is celebrating his eighteenth birthday. He meets his friends at Moszkva Square and they set off to party. The political situation is changing day by day, but the young people preparing for their final exams are not in the least bit interested in this at all. Instead of the change of regime, Petya is preoccupied with his friends, his first love, his first trip to the West, and his coveted car.

Hamburgers with mixed pickles, a red Lada, and a meeting at Moszkva Square under the clock. Ferenc Török's film quickly became a cult classic, subjectively capturing the mood of the change of regime. Most of the film’s scenes were shot at easily recognisable locations in Budapest: Moszkva Square, II. Rákóczi Ferenc High School, Tunnel, Gellért Spa, Pajtás Restaurant on Gyorskocsi Street, Liberty Bridge, etc.

The film uses archive footage and excerpts from Hungarian and foreign news reports to depict several historical events in Hungary during the summer of 1989, including the reburial of Imre Nagy, the death and funeral of János Kádár, and the high school graduation scandal that actually took place that year.

Date: Wednesday, 15 October 2025, 6:00 p.m.

Venue: ELTE University Library and Archives, community space (Budapest, V. Ferenciek tere 6.)

Director, screenwriter: Ferenc Török

Cinematographer: Dániel Garas

Editor: Béla Barsi

Music: Balázs Temesvári

Cast: Gábor Karalyos, Eszter Balla, Erzsi Pápai, Simon Szabó, Vilmos Csatlós, Ilona Béres, Imre Csuja

Our guest in the post-screening discussion will be the film's screenwriter and director, Ferenc Török.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRHkwO-5fFg

Due to limited seating, registration is possible at the Moszkva Square (Ferenc Török's cult film, 2001) link.

The organisers welcome letters regarding the film club at eltenfi.filmklub@elte.hu.

ELTE–NFI Film Club Facebook page

As part of the ELTE Heritage Coordination program run by the ELTE University Library and Archives, and funded by this year's collection preservation budget, the Rector's Office initiated the restoration of the historical dean's chain of the Faculty of Law and Political Science. The chain, which had been damaged over the decades, was restored by Szilvia Döbrentei, a goldsmith and restorer working for ARCHEOLORE Kft.

In addition to restoration, new, high-quality, durable storage cases were made for all four historical chains (the rector's and three faculty chains) by Tokkészítő Kft. to ensure their long-term preservation.

The chain of office for the Dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Science was made on May 3, 1960, at the Ötvös Studio of the Applied Arts Company, by master goldsmith József Péri. The chain of the Faculty of Law features a round emblem with a sword pointing upwards and a set of scales on the reverse side, bearing the inscription: "UNIVERSITAS SCIENTIARUM BUDAPESTINENSIS DE ROLANDO EÖTVÖS NOMINATA FACULTATIS POLITICO IURIDICAE DECANUS". The chain links alternate between a sword and scales and an open book with a paragraph symbol, separated by gold-plated links decorated with green enamel.

The chain was made for the 325th anniversary of ELTE, based on the decision of the University Council and the initiative of Rector Gyula Ortutay, based on the sketches of Gyula László. Thanks to the renovation, this university insignia of significant historical value can be preserved in a dignified manner for future generations.

Written by Bianka Kovács-Molnár

An important task of ELTE Heritage Coordination is to manage and showcase the valuable cultural heritage owned by the university, and one of the goals of the meetings held two or three times a year is to further develop professional knowledge and acquire new insights.

On September 29, 2025, Dr. Marianna Berényi, communications manager at the Museum of Ethnography, editor-in-chief of Hungarian Museums Online, and editor of Museum Café, gave a lecture entitled Effective Communication at the ELTE University Library and Archives. In her presentation, she gave a brief introduction to museum communication practices and sought answers to questions such as how to communicate effectively on a small budget, what to base communication on, and where to find reliable background materials.

The ELTE–NFI University Film Club screening and discussion series continues with another SPECIAL EDITION. We welcome university members from all ELTE faculties.

Tamás Almási's dramatic documentary film brings together political prisoners from the Kistarcsa internment camp and their former prison guards forty years later. In the final years of socialism and after the fall of communism, it became possible to talk openly about the historical traumas of the recent past. What makes Almási's film different is that he not only juxtaposes different points of view in interviews, but also personally confronts the former prison guard with his former prisoners. Twelve former prisoners recall what life was like in the Kistarcsa internment camp in the 1950s. They revisit the prison, where their former captor, ÁVH Major Piroska, also appears, and the confrontation they have been waiting for for nearly 40 years begins.

Among those reminiscing are a writer (Magda Vámos), an actress (Camilla Dévay, mother of Dorottya Udvaros), an aristocrat (Mónika Esterházy, aunt of Péter Esterházy), a staunch communist, and a kulak. What they have in common is that they were all sent to Kistarcsa on trumped-up charges, their crimes mostly amounting to having a relative or loved one declared an enemy of the regime, but there were also those who were sentenced to three years simply for kissing near Rákosi's villa.

Date: Friday, October 10, 2025, 6:00 p.m.

Venue: ELTE University Library and Archives, community space (Budapest, V. Ferenciek tere 6.)

Director: Tamás Almási

Dramaturg: Gyöngyi Bende

Cinematographers: Nyika Jancsó, Loránd Mertz, György Kováts

Editors: Katalin Halász, Béla Koncz

Composer: István Slamovits

Our guests in the post-screening discussion will be Tamás Almási, the film's Kossuth and Béla Balázs Prize-winning director, screenwriter, and cinematographer, and Tibor Zinner, historian and university professor.

Due to limited seating, advance registration is required: Ítélet nélkül (Without Judgment, documentary film by Tamás Almási, 1992).

Please send any correspondence regarding the film club to eltenfi.filmklub@elte.hu.

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The ELTE–NFI University Film Club screening and discussion series continues. We welcome university members from all ELTE faculties.

Golden Bear winner Ildikó Enyedi's beautifully shot film, released in 2021 and featuring foreign actors, is an adaptation of Milán Füst's Nobel Prize-nominated novel about the complicated love story of Dutch ship captain Jakab Störr and his wife. One day, sitting in a café, Störr makes a bet that he will marry the first woman who walks in. And then Lizzy walks in...

As soon as he sees her, he immediately asks the charming French lady to marry him. However, their marriage, which starts out happily, is filled with intimate moments as well as agonizing hours. The captain's emotional ups and downs reveal a precise portrait of jealousy and the irresolvable contradictions of male-female relationships. Under the guise of a rich love story reminiscent of One Thousand and One Nights, Captain Störr's lovable, painfully honest character helps us understand the complexity and mysterious beauty of life.

Date: 8 October 2025, 6 p.m.

Venue: ELTE University Library and Archives, community space (Budapest, V. Ferenciek tere 6.)

Director, screenwriter: Ildikó Enyedi

Cinematographer: Marcel Rév

Editor: Károly Szalai

Music: Ádám Balázs

Main roles:

Captain Störr – Gijs Naber

Lizzy – Léa Seydoux

Our guests in the post-screening discussion will be Dr. Judit Szilágyi, chief curator of the Petőfi Literary Museum and researcher of Milán Füst, and Mónika Mécs, the film's executive producer.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NCeLFW2jIM

Due to limited seating, advance registration is required.

Registration: https://www.ajk.elte.hu/content/a-felesegem-tortenete-enyedi-ildiko-filmje-2021.e.1927

Please send any correspondence regarding the film club to eltenfi.filmklub@elte.hu.

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The ELTE–NFI University Film Club screening and discussion series continues. We welcome university members from all ELTE faculties.

Zoltán Fábri adapted Ferenc Molnár's classic with English actors to Hollywood standards. It was the first Hungarian film to be nominated for an Oscar. Ferenc Molnár's 1907 youth novel has been translated into more than 30 languages and has become required reading in many places. It has been adapted for film five times, with Fábri's version considered the gold standard among the various adaptations. The child actors are young English people who were selected from a London drama school. It is an unapologetically genre film, which is perfectly Hollywood-compatible in terms of its dramatic structure, rhythm, planning, set design, and the siege scene in the finale.

It is the turn of the century, and two groups of schoolchildren are competing with each other in Budapest's 8th district. The children playing on the Pál Street playground learn that the red-shirted gang, led by Áts Feri, are preparing to attack them in the herb garden. They choose Bokát as their leader, everyone is given an officer's rank, and only the scrawny Ernő Nemecsek remains a private, who is later unjustly accused of treason. To prove his loyalty, the little boy embarks on a partisan action that later proves fatal, and then the day of the great battle arrives.

In the film, the younger Pásztor was played by Nyika Jancsó, son of Miklós Jancsó, who went on to become a cinematographer as an adult and studied under György Illés and Zoltán Fábri at college. In 2017, he also contributed to the complete restoration of the film.

Venue: University Square Campus (1053 Budapest, Egyetem tér 1-3, ground floor, A/1 practice room, corridor next to the cloakroom) 

Date: 1 October 2025, 6 p.m.

Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyuWNiQBpZs

Director: Zoltán Fábri

Screenplay: Zoltán Fábri, Endre Bohém, based on the novel by Ferenc Molnár

Cinematographer: György Illés

Editor: Ferencné Széchényi

Music: Emil Petrovics

Main cast: Anthony Kemp, William Burleigh, Mari Törőcsik, László Paál, Sándor Pécsi, John Moulder Brown

Our guests in the post-screening discussion will be cinematographer Miklós Jancsó ’Nyika’, one of the film's actors, and Ambrus Gönczi, local historian, museologist and director of the Ferencváros Local History Collection.

Letters regarding the film club should be sent to the organizers at eltenfi.filmklub@elte.hu.

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The Hungarian Academy of Sciences will celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2025. Among its members are many distinguished students and teachers who have left their mark not only on the Academy but also on the history of our institution. Imre Szentpétery (1878-1950) historian, university professor was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences from 1929.

He completed his studies at the University of Budapest as a member of the Eötvös Collegium. He traveled to Germany, France, and Italy on study trips, where he mastered Western historiography methodology and became familiar with the major historiographical trends of the time. Using all this, he wanted to introduce advanced source criticism methodology in Hungary, so he focused primarily on historical auxiliary sciences, and within that, on diplomatics. From 1914, he taught at the University of Budapest, then from 1918 at the University of Debrecen. From 1923 until his death, he returned to Budapest to teach diploma studies, heraldry, and historical auxiliary sciences, and served as director of the Historical Seminar. In 1935, he wrote the history of the Faculty of Humanities, and in the 1939/40 academic year, he was dean of the faculty. He wrote several theoretical works in the field of historical auxiliary sciences, which are still used as textbooks and reference books today. He also made a lasting contribution as a source publisher, publishing, among other things, a critical catalogue of the charters of the Árpád dynasty rulers and Latin narrative texts written in Hungary during the Árpád dynasty. He was a member of the Hungarian Heraldic and Genealogical Society from 1902 and its president from 1932. The manuscripts of his university lectures are in our library's special collection, and some of his documents are in our archives.

According to a survey conducted by Eduline, readers voted the ELTE University Library and Archives building as the most beautiful university library in the capital.

According to an article published on eduline.hu, the editors presented the beautiful and unique university libraries of the capital city in a previous article, launching a vote for the title of „Budapest's most beautiful university library”.  Nine university libraries took part in the competition, among which the library palace located at 6 Ferenciek Square stood out from the field and confidently took first place. Herewith, we would like to express our gratitude for this distinguished recognition.

The doors of our library are open to everyone, and we look forward to welcoming both old and new readers. In addition to providing a place for learning, our reading, study, and community spaces also convey cultural, historical, and architectural values, which are revealed among others in our programs announced as part of the Autumn Festival of Museums and in interactive library tours. Discover the treasury of knowledge!

The library intended to draw attention to the protection of our cultural values ​​and the preservation of our built heritage with our event organized in the University Library and Archives of Eötvös Loránd University in the frame of this year's Cultural Heritage Days.

As the opening of our program series, from 10.00 a.m. the audience could attend a performance by the folk dance group of the ELTE Eötvös Art Ensemble. Our chamber exhibition, opened on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, presents the documents and careers of three outstanding scholars, Ferenc Toldy, Sándor Szilágyi, and Loránd Eötvös, who played an important role in the history of the University, the University Library, and the Academy. The exhibition can be visited during the Autumn Festival of Museums on weekdays from 10.00 to 15.00.  Lovers of books, science and the arts could gain insight into the architectural and historical wonders of the library through our guided tours, learn about the process of book restoration, some of the special items in our museum collection and discover the secrets hidden within the walls of some architectural gems through the films of Kossuth and Béla Balázs award-winning film director György Szomjas. In the discussion following the film, our guest was János Golda, winner of the Ybl, Pro Architectura, and Príma awards. The major events in the history of our University were also explored in our exhibition entitled Book, Robe, Science – Symbols from the History of Eötvös Loránd University. During our events, our guests were able to make unique, hardcover handicraft books, interspersed with Jókai Quiz, bookmark coloring and library puzzles, as well as calligrapher Dezső Buzogány introduced the art of calligraphy.

As part of our series of events, harpist Klára Bábel and cellist Árpád Amirás gave a concert for music lovers. We warmly welcome all visitors to our programs organized in the frame of the Museum Festival!