A Hungarian silent film once thought lost, “After Death” (“A halál után”), will premiere at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, thanks to a restoration initiative led by Hungary’s National Film Institute (NFI).
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The only surviving copy of the 1920 crime thriller directed by Alfréd Dicy, one of the pioneers of Hungarian cinema, was found in Belgium’s Royal Film Archive. Its restoration was completed through collaboration between Belgium, Hungary and France, with support from the E.U.’s Creative Europe MEDIA program.
“After Death” is just one of several films on Hungary’s “Most Wanted List,” which was launched in 2021 to recover early Hungarian films. So far, about a dozen from the list have been found and restored.
The oldest on the list, “The Dance” (“A Táncz”), dating back to 1901, is considered to be Hungary’s first film. It showcases Hungarian dancers, and was part of a presentation that went on tour – it’s thought the film might later have been split up and that parts of the footage are still stored in different locations.
Another notable find in recent times is “Spring in Winter,” a 1917 film directed by Michael Curtiz, then known as Mihály Kertész, before he became famous for Hollywood classics like “Casablanca.”
The film was discovered in the U.S. Library of Congress. “Our friend Rob Stone from the Library of Congress came over to the Budapest Classics Film Marathon [an international festival for restored films],” he said. “He was showing us some Hungarian titles from their collection, and then there was this one we didn’t expect… we said, ‘Rob, you just discovered a lost film!’” said NFI Film Archive Director György Ráduly sharing the story with Variety on the sidelines of the International Classic Film Market in (MIFC) Lyon.
These rediscoveries are part of a broader effort by the NFI to track down and restore missing films that were lost due to Hungary’s turbulent 20th century history, which included wars, shifting borders, and the emigration of many Hungarians.
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As Ráduly explains, “It was not important, at the time, to think about film preservation: film was [part of the] entertainment business. Films were not considered as culture,” he says, adding that nitrate reels were both flammable and expensive to store, so many were destroyed or lost.
Since 2017, the NFI has focused on digitizing and restoring these classics. Beyond restoring them for preservation, the goal is to make them available to a broader audience. The NFI has been working to bring these films back into circulation through cinema screenings, television broadcasts, and streaming platforms like Hungary’s Filmio ( filmio.hu ).
International collaboration has been essential to the project. The NFI has partnered with distributors in the U.S., including Deaf Crocodile, Arbelos, Kino Lorber, and Criterion, as well as with companies in Spain, Italy, and France.
Ráduly highlighted the importance of the NFI’s research into Hungary’s influence on global cinema, noting that many influential filmmakers, such as Michael Curtiz and Alexander Korda, started their careers in Hungary. “The role of Hungarians in world cinema is much bigger than people think,” he says.
As the search for Hungary’s lost films continues, the NFI is determined to ensure these cinematic treasures find their way back to audiences around the world.
The MIFC, which runs alongside the Lumière Film Festival, wraps in Lyon on Oct. 18.
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