Hyped by its production company as a new phenomenon in Hungarian filmmaking, Europa Express tries to combine the adrenaline pumping stimulation of a Hollywood blockbuster with Hungarian stars and a topic relevant to a society in transition - Mafia crime. In this respect, the film could yet become a classic of some sort. On the other hand, The Lord s Lantern in Budapest , Mikl s Jancs s innovative and darkly humorous kick-start to his beleaguered career, which is also a distinctly Hungarian work, dropped out of the competition at the first stage. The international film critics present at the festival took a rather different view of the matter and awarded The Lord s Lantern in Budapest their Gene Moskovitz prize. The Hungarian film industry is not short of its own explanations for the decline of Hungarian cinema, although they have little to do with the ideas outlined above.
Most insiders see the problem in terms of one word - money.
Advocates of this view usually seem to think it is sufficient just to utter this word to muster a compelling argument for what should be done. Rarely do they expand on the more mundane practicalities of how the money should be allotted. Presumably, their logic goes, if enough cash is thrown at Hungarian film directors, they will somehow suddenly be able to make good films again. It is worth looking at this presumptive and dangerous fallacy in some detail. Firstly, although the Hungarian film industry is stagnating in terms of quality, money is not preventing activity in terms of quantity.