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THOSE WHO REMAINED Presented by Director Barnabás Tóth at the 20th FICM,

Gustavo R. Gallardo

The film Those Who Remained (2019), by director Barnabás Tóth, had a special screening at the 20th Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), as part of its alliance with the Embassy of Hungary in Mexico and the National Cultural Fund of Hungary.

The founder and general director of the festival, Daniela Michel, said that the film has received "extraordinary praise from critics", and that it is one of two Hungarian films screened in this edition of FICM. The second one being Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) by Béla Tarr.

Director Barnabás Tóth attended the special screening and thanked the audience for being there, took notice of how many young people were among them, "because it is usually older people who come to see this film."

Those Who Remained is set in post-war Budapest, Aladár, a lonely 42-year-old man who lost his wife and children in the concentration camps, works as a gynecologist. Klára is a 16 year old orphan girl who has not had her period yet. When her grandmother takes her to a medical appointment with him, they both find in each other what they have been missing for years.

The film is based on the novel of the same name published in 2003, written by Zsuzsa Várkonyi, and reunites the two protagonists who had already acted together in very different roles.

“I wanted to grasp the soul of the novel and represent how it is possible to move on after this great tragedy; the great devastation that took place in the holocaust with Jewish-Hungarian people, where 90% of them were exterminated in the concentration camps. Few were left so it is about how you can withstand it and move forward with love and affection between people,” explains the director.