02/02/2016 - This time, the director of The Notebook has assembled a cast including Zsolt Nagy, Dorka Gryllus and Geza D Hegedus; the movie is being produced by Unio Film

This week sees the start of the 45-day shoot for Bridge of Sighs, the sixth feature by Janos Szasz, who has such films as Szédülés (1990), Woyzeck (winner of the European Film Award for Best Debut Film in 1994), The Witman Boys (selected for Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 1997), Opium - A Madwoman's Diary (Best Director, Best Cinematography and the Foreign Press Award at the Hungarian Film Week in 2007) and The Notebook [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Janos Szász
film profile] (which won at Karlovy Vary in 2013) to his credit. Interestingly, three of the director’s previous films have represented Hungary in the race for the Oscar for Best Foreign-language Film: Woyzeck, The Witman Boys and The Notebook.

The cast of Bridge of Sighs includes Zsolt Nagy (a European Film Promotion Shooting Star in 2008, after he rose to fame in Kontroll [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; popular in such titles as Kolorado Kid [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Team Building and The Exam [+see also:
film review
film profile]), Dorka Gryllus (who turned heads in such movies as Dallas Among Us, Irina Palm [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sam Garbarski
interview: Sébastien Delloye
film profile] and Soul Kitchen [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]; seen recently in Week-end) and Geza D Hegedus (Taxidermia [+see also:
trailer
film profile], soon to appear on screens in Loop).

Written by Janos Szasz and Mark Bodzsar, the story is based on a real-life scandal that actually shook Budapest in 1925. Butcher Ferenc Kodelka, the owner of the biggest slaughterhouse in town, falls head over heels in love with Mici, formerly a prostitute but now the wife of ex-police officer Gusztav Léderer. With her husband’s consent, she spends many pleasurable hours with Kodelka in exchange for a modest financial compensation. A wild and insatiable love triangle starts to take shape as the three main characters slowly get sucked into a morally corrupt way of life. Léderer and his wife steal money from the butcher, and their greed carries on growing to the point where there is soon only one solution: Kodelka has to disappear...

Produced by Istvan Bodzsar for Unio Film, Bridge of Sighs is benefiting from a budget of around €1.56 million, including €453,000 worth of support from the Hungarian National Film Fund, whose "international sales" division will represent the film overseas; the movie is due to be completed at the start of 2017. The DoP is Tibor Mathe, while the artistic direction is being handled by Gabor Valcz.

(Translated from French)