| Karlovy Vary East of the West: The Seventh Circle |
| 01 July 2009 | By Cathy Meils |
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Árpád Sopsits' The Seventh Circle -- the concluding film in the director's half-century trilogy -- takes its title and inspiration from Dante's Divine Comedy.
Sopsits has described the Dante link to the seventh circle of hell as "the circle of peolple who defy God, suicides, and ... who sin against their neigbours." As with the first two films in the trilogy, Shooting Gallery (1989) and Abandoned (2001), The Seventh Circle again deals with childhood and adolescence. This time, the film took its inspiration from the true story of the suicides of two twelve-year-old boys, although it is not specifically about them. Speaking about the film during the Hungarian Film Week, Sopsits said, "The movie is abut a group of seven boys trying to find faith; it's about loneliness and friendship." Looking at the final story in the themed trilogy from a contemporary perspective, rather than from the era of his own childhood, Sopsits noted, "Today, [children} have more choice, but they dont seem any happier... Because of the changes in society and our weird kind of wildcapitalism, people have become more introverted, and estrangement is more prevalent than ever. Earlier, the different classes of society has some kind of solidarity among them, nowadays this is nonexistent in society." Sopsits attracted immediate attention with Shooting Gallery, his debut film, when it was selected for the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes. His other works include the 1992 film Video Blues (shown at the Locarno film festival). The Seventh Circle was produced by Pál Sándor for Hunnia Film Studio (www.hunniafilm.hu) with €360,000 in support from Magyar Filmunió (www.filmunio.hu). The film premiered at Hungarian Film Week, and makes its international premiere in the East of the West section. The small town story was filmed on location in rural Hungary. Production information: Hunnia Film Studio Director: Árpád Sopsits Screenplay: Árpád Sopsits Dir. of Photography: Márk Győri Music: Péter Erdélyi, Péter Tóth Designer: Árpád Sopsits Editor: Mari Miklós Producer: Pál Sándor Cast:Benett Vilmányi, Tamás Erőss, Anna Vicsotka, László Krikkay, Gáspár Mesés, Tekla Magyar, Gábor Gavallér, Zsolt Trill, Imre Csuja
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