Already the night before the show, fans attacked Kádár L. Gellért, who played János Hunyadi, Vivien Rujder, who played Erzsébet Szilágyi, and Mariann Hermányi, who played Erzsébet Luxemburg. They were caught on the central road of the city, La Croisette, by the keen-eyed locals, who stuck printed A4-size photos under the actors’ noses in the hope of a signature (which, needless to say, they got, of course).
Of course, if you live in the most important city in Europe – from a cinematic point of view – you may have already gotten used to following the stars, but the Hunyadi Hungarian actors are not stars yet, at least not in international terms. However, this may change, and after seeing the first part of the series and its reception, it will change. That the Rise of the Raven How high (Rise of the Raven) goes and to what level it raises the team is for now the music of the future, but it is certain that it already has fans: laymen and professionals alike.
Zero expectations, pleasant surprise
A packed screening room, female reporters from Kuwait whispering to each other with loving eyes, unceasing applause and an emotional crew – that’s how you could describe the scenes that we were able to catch before, during and after the screening on Tuesday night in Cannes. Hunyadi, created with the support of Beta Film and the National Film Institute (NFI), has reached another milestone (Rise of the Raven): the first part of the series, which will be released next March on TV2, was presented in front of the largest content producers and buyers in the film, television and streaming industry. This is the first time that a Hungarian production has received such special attention from the international professional public.
I’ve never liked martial, historical productions. I’m not saying that I’ve never seen this type of movie or series, but I’ve hardly sat down in front of it on my own accord. The killing did not stop me, I always made the dying horses cry, I was annoyed by the endless series of intrigues and intrigues, and the obvious and drooling love of the handsome boy and the innocent, miraculously beautiful woman. I often got lost in the over-complicated plot threads, and I wasn’t impressed by the scenario, which was not much different from the real events. THE Two queens meg The final duel that’s why he nailed it in front of the screen, even as a teenager Suleiman too, but being a cultural journalist I missed most of these productions.
Understandably, I was a bit worried before the screening of Hunyadi. Full of doubts, I sat down in the big hall of the festival palace with almost zero expectations, and I was the most surprised when I came out of the screening with
As the first part went down and the lights came on, I found myself already no more, I’m interested in the sequelwhich is obviously a good sign. In addition, apart from all kinds of “grand Magyarism”, the fact that I see the history of my own country on the screen really impressed me a lot. I knew the historical figures, I knew who was who, I didn’t get involved in the family tree or the relationships between the characters.
Already in the first episode, we fell into the trap, the production immediately started with a tragic, emotional scene, but it is not possible (more precisely, it should be) to start such a series any other way. At the beginning of the screening, I was afraid that the party would start slowly, and that the story would not (yet) go anywhere during one episode.
But as I thought in advance, there were also the warrior, love and weapon threads with Ernő Fekete, i.e. Count Ulrik Cillei in the lead, so we got a big dose of everything right away. You can’t say that nothing important happened in the first hour – on the contrary. There was a lot going on, and it turned out to be exciting and exciting. In this production, I almost didn’t feel that the above-mentioned things bothered me at all. Maybe because I now knew these heroes personally? Maybe, but whatever…
Eye candy actors
Of course, there was no shortage eye candyfrom, i.e. not even from an eye-catching sight, by which we naturally mean the beautiful actors. The Kuwaiti girls sitting in front of me were already melting for Kádár L. Gellért, who plays Hunyadi, even when they saw him shirtless on the screen… Needless to say, these female reporters – and, surprisingly, their fellow male reporters – were the first to after the premiere, they ran up to the actor and took the obligatory selfie together.
On the women’s front, we got to know Hunyadi’s first love, Mara Brankovics (Franciska Törőcsik) and Erzsébet Szilágyi (Vivien Rujder). The former stood (semi)naked in half of the scenes in front of the cameras, and the male heroes, while the latter looked longingly at Hunyadi, the size of a mountain collapse. Törőcsik appeared as a delicate, yet determined woman in the first part, and in terms of her appearance, she fit perfectly into the extravagant Sultan environment. Rujder’s less sophisticated, more combative habit reminded us of a real knight queen. We didn’t expect such a big contrast between the two characters, which was beautifully shown not only in their appearance, but also in their relationship with Hunyadi.
I was in the writing room the whole time, I was also working on the script. Although I had already seen the first part, I was still impressed by the screening. I had to learn to let go of the original story, or rather to separate the two. At first, it hurt that several original characters were left out of the series and the dialogues were changed, but you can’t condense the text of twelve novels into ten parts. This series is a new production with great creators
said Mór Bán to Index after the premiere Hunyadiauthor of the novel series, who himself participated in this year’s MIPCOM.
“We haven’t really had the opportunity to do this until now”
We talked to the actors before the screening, the entire crew arrived excitedly at the four-day MIPCOM.
“This is all very fast and unprocessable. Maybe in a week I will be able to figure out where we were and what we did, but right now our task is to be an integral part of the event and to promote our series well, because we worked on it enough. I was almost 27 when I found out we were going to shoot, and I’m about to turn 31, so it’s not a long time. Yesterday with Robert Lantos (the producer of the series – the editor) I talked and said that all this is especially difficult because it is very good here, but it is really the first stop of having to let go of the project. This part of the job is a bit stressful, and I want to do well,” Vivien Rujder told Hungarian journalists on the second day of the festival when asked how they felt before the premiere.
I think every actor’s dream, at least mine, is that one day I will be able to go abroad with the work I put my soul into. Either because of a presentation, or because I’m already abroad. For me, this is the first time that I leave the Budapest board because I am working, and it is a very, very good feeling. My soul melts when I see that this production takes off, when I see that small flyers are printed, we watch the production together with the foreigners, my colleagues are here, and it’s really like watching your child grow up
Mariann Hermányi said.
“I arrived here, I mean, in the production, I was deported from Transylvania. I read an article in which it was written: they were deported.
So they were deported from Transylvania, and no one knew them, that was good.
I was able to show myself in such a tabula rasa field. After the casting, the nearly half-year preparation began, there were already realizations, or rather my fears appeared, about whether I would be able to do it. We trained eight to ten hours a day with the stuntmen. I arrived here already with an athletic figure, but combat sports, martial arts, handling weapons, or even having to learn to ride a horse, that was nonsense at first. But in the meantime I knew why I was here, what I had to achieve and what I had to do. I fell in love with Hunyadi’s character,” said the main actor Kádár L. Gellért about the preparation.
I think this is a very, very big milestone for experienced actors who have been in the field for a long time, either in terms of the size of the crew, or because we were able to play with foreign actors and film actors. In Hungary, we are a little behind in this, it is always fruitful when we meet great film actors and see how they behave on the set, how they approach a role
Mariann Hermányi told Index about where they would place this production in their career.
“There are a lot of giant productions going on in Hungary, and sometimes, I don’t know, they give the role of a Ukrainian prostitute or a soldier to a Hungarian actor. But the fact that this series is in six languages and that almost everyone was able to speak in their own mother tongue is a big word. I’m grateful that this is a given, that we can play in our own mother tongue in such big films, and that we can play a leading role, big roles… We haven’t really had the opportunity to do that until now,” Franciska Törőcsik responded to our question.
The series is expected to start airing on TV2 in the spring of 2025.
(Cover photo: Hunyadi staff on October 22, 2024. Photo: Hunyadi)
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