East from the West, or the Discreet Charm of the Media
(NYUGATTOL KELETRE, AVAGY A MEDIA DISZKRET BAJA) ((HUNGARIAN))
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With: Andras Szoke, Janos Regos, Sandor Badar.
This muddled comedy doesn't live up to its intriguing title. A heavy-handed satire on post-communist consumerism in Hungary, it's a road movie without energy.
Co-director Istvan Darday made the amusing "Holiday in Britain" 20 years ago, but new effort, made with regular collaborator Gyorgyi Szalai, is a labored item that attacks easy, obvious targets (strident TV ads being the main one).
Slim plot involves the journey of a large-screen TV set, first prize in a competition, from Budapest to the village where the lucky winner resides. Carried on a left-behind Russian military truck, the TV is switched on and a perfect picture can be seen as the truck passes through the Magyar landscape.
Comic Andras Szoke, who usually directs his own material, appears as the truck driver's mate and is the main source of the supposed humor.
Tech credits are basic.
Camera (color), Tibor Nemes , Gyorgy Palos, Attila Balazs; editor, Margit Galamb; music, Jozsef Czencz.
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