Cannes Film Festival (Cinefondation) 2019 – As Up To Now
Hope is what brings us forward. All the characters in the movie - including the main character Margit, and her daughter, Judit become part of a hope-giving lie, that can turn up their lives and bring a new beginning in their relationship.
Interview with Writer/Director Katalin Moldovai
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
As Up to Now was my graduation movie at the Budapest Metropolitan University. I made this film because I liked very much the short story written by Tőth Krisztina, and I felt this story close to me.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Because it makes you contemplate/think about things what usually we like to avoid.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
In the film, there are some personal themes which I think are universal as well, like mother-daughter relationships, loneliness, and the biggest initiation of all, what all of us have to live one day: death.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
The movie is an adaptation of a short story written by a contemporary, well known Hungarian writer: Tóth Kriszta. We worked together with the screenwriter, Palóczi Zita almost a half a year until we got the final version of the script. Our aim was a well constructed and written script, and I really think, that this is the base of a good movie. I am a big fan of the Romanian new wave cinema, so with the cinematographer, Táborosi András we searched the shooting scenes from the real life, ex. the hospital is a real hospital, everything is authentic. I think this gives a specific atmosphere to the movie, what you can not create, build in a studio.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
From the part of the audience, I received the feedback, that is a movie that is not easy to watch, especially if somebody had the experience losing someone very close to her/him, but despite this they liked the movie very much. From my teachers at the university, we received very good feedback.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
None of the two :)
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I hope that the movie will reach more people.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Film festival directors, Producers, Distributors.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I could not say, that I would necessarily like an impact. It sounds too aggressive. I would like to achieve that people think about the themes presented in the film.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
What is death?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I am working now on a feature film script based on a true story what happened in Transilvania, Romania: it is the story of a literature teacher, who has to live an absurd situation, like in Franz Kafka's novels, just because she recommended the movie about Arthur Remboud life to her students. What makes me write this script is, that a tiny little thing what is innocent can create big waves, especially if the media, television get involved, and I am interested in how this affects the personal life of the teacher, how the relationships change when something is mediatized.
Also, we are working on a documentary film project. The movie will show the life of Hungarian people who remained sporadically in Oltenia, Romania, showing their happily optimistic or agonized moments in the research of their roots. They are connected throw Szántó Sándor, the priest who visits them, traveling sometimes more than 100 km, and show him we will know this strange community with all their problems, desires and dreams.
Interview: May 2019
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
As Up To Now
Hope is what brings us forward. All the characters in the movie - including the main character Margit, and her daughter, Judit become part of a hope-giving lie, that can turn up their lives and bring a new beginning in their relationship.
Length: 23:06
Director: Katalin Moldovai
Producer: BUDAPEST METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
Writer: ZITA PALÓCZI
About the writer, director and producer:
KATALIN MOLDOVAI was born in Transilvania, Romania in 1982. At the Sapientia Transylvanian Hungarian University in Cluj-Napoca she finished her BA degree in 2013 in Film – Foto - Media studies. She continued her studies in Hungary at the Budapest Metropolitan University, where she earned her MA degree in Television and Film directing in 2017. During this period she directed six short movies, mainly fiction: A barátkozás lehetőségei (Chances for friendship) (2012 - short film); Turpi (2012 - short documentary); Burok (Shell) (2013 - short film); Szezon után (After season) (2013 - short film - Best Shortfilm Prize - 20. National Student Film festival 2013, Budapest / Fiction category Prize - Ffest International Film Festival, Cluj-Napoca); Jegyesek (The betrothed) (2014 - short film.); Asszonyok feketében (Women in black) (2015 - short film); Ahogy eddig (As up to now) (2018 - short film - First Prize: Filmtett Film Festival, Kolozsvár, 2018/ and Jury prize: 63. Orszagos Fuggetlen Filmfesztival, Budapest, 2018.) Now she is working on a documentary film project with the title At the edge.
ZITA PALÓCZI was born in Budapest, in 1990. She studied Screenwriting on the Budapest Metropolitan University, where she co-wrote the student films, As up to now (2018) and Eight to Ten (2018). Now she is working on a feature film project with Barna László, adapting the novel of László Potozky, Éles.
Key cast: Vera Venczel (Margit/Mother), Ildikó Tóth (Judit/Daughter), Rozi Lovas (Ágika/ Nurse), Andrea Söptei (Doctor), Péter Fehérvári (Doctor)
Looking for: producers
Facebook: Moldovai Katalin
Hashtags used: #drama#mother-daughter realtionship#hope#lie#
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Cannes Film Festival/ Cannes- 2019. May. 21., 02:30 pm, Bunuel Theatre