Discover the fundaments of Judit Elek's art, from her earliest experiments with mixing documentary and fiction film to first stabs at casually questioning official policies.

Thematic & Retrospectives

Judit Elek (1937) is among world cinema&rsquo;s most uncompromising figures. Beloved by IFFR founder Huub Bals, yet to this day little known in wider circles, Elek made&nbsp;both fiction and documentary films that are almost brutally personal, reflecting as much the history of her native Hungary as her own trauma-riddled life.&nbsp;International Film Festival Rotterdam is honoured to present the most complete retrospective so far of an auteur whose works and wisdom are needed today as urgently as ever.

Focus: Judit Elek

Early Works

IFFR 2023

Part two of Judit Elek’s Istenmezején documentary, where relationships with locals get both tighter and more ambivalent.

Elek casually expands On the Field of God in 1972-73’s vision of one village, its inhabitants and their often infuriating way of life into a pars pro toto panorama of People's Hungary in various shades of grey – a country that promises but fails to deliver for the many.

A Commonplace Story

A look at the present use of several Hungarian castles and some of their former owners.

A look at the present use of several Hungarian castles – relics of a culture past.

Inhabitants of Castles in Hungary in 1966

Concert documentary about a performance of Chasidic songs by  composer Max/Miksa/Mihai Eisikovits.

This concert film documents the results of  the historical reconstruction, then recording of the Chasidic songs Hungarian/Romanian composer Max/Miksa/Mihai Eisikovits wrote down in 1938-39 –  phonetically, without knowing Yiddish, Hebrew or Aramaic. Listen to the echoes of a culture now gone.

After All the Dead Sing Again...

Film à clef of Judit Elek's teenage years in 1950s Budapest, between Stalinist rule and first longings.

Kati is barely a teenager, yet forced to fend for herself – her mother is dead, her father working far away in an iron foundry. And yet, she’s not alone: her mother’s ghost visits once in a while. A film à clef of Judit Elek’s teenage years.

Awakening

A man, a woman, an afternoon, a city and an unspoken hope of finding love.

An unspoken hope: to find love through the personal ads. The birth of cinéma vérité in Hungary!

Encounter

What is a human being worth in a society that measures value by productivity?

What is a human being worth in a society that measures value by productivity? A subversive look at workers' lives.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025