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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Hungary

Shooting has wrapped on Ádam Toser’s Blockade

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- Steered by Film Positive Prod, the film is a fictionalised exploration of the taxi blockade at the end of October in 1990 which caused Prime Minister József Antall serious issues

Shooting has wrapped on Ádam Toser’s Blockade
Zoltán Seress in Blockade

The final clapperboard slammed on 15 January, after a 48-day film shoot which kicked off on 20 October, on Blockade [+see also:
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, the first fiction feature film by Ádam Toser (a filmmaker from the documentary world who’s also an editor). Centred around the character of József Antall, the first head of government to be freely elected in Hungary in May 1990, the movie’s cast includes Zoltán Seress (The Inventor [+see also:
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, Kincsem – Bet on Revenge [+see also:
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), László Szacsvay (notably well-received in Paw and soon to be seen in We Started Together) and Tibor Gáspár (crowned Best Actor at last year’s Hungarian Film Awards thanks to The Inventor, and previously in on the action of Kincsem – Bet on Revenge), not to mention Ildikó Tóth, András Sütő, Zsolt Végh and Attila Vidnyánszky Jr (named Best Actor at Hungarian Film Week 2016 for his work in Home Guards [+see also:
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).

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Written by Norbert Köbli (awarded the Best Screenplay trophy at Hungarian Film Week in 2016 via Demimonde [+see also:
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and nominated in the same category for Eternal Winter [+see also:
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and Tall Tales in 2019 and 2020, respectively) the story kicks off with taxi drivers who are protesting outside parliament in reaction to drastic petrol price hikes. Having swiftly lost faith in Hungary’s newly-born democratic state, they cordon off the Hungarian capital, and soon the entire country, with their cars. The opposition supports them and urges a revolution. The President of the Republic, the press and the public are also on their side, while the various ruling bodies likewise abandon the government which has rapidly fallen out of favour as a result of its Draconian measures. József Antall, a former revolutionary of 1956, suddenly finds himself on the other side of the barricades. He's all alone, recuperating from surgery in a hospital. What should he do? How can he find a solution to this situation? Blockade isn’t just a chronicle of the four days of unrest led by cab drivers: it also shows the struggles behind the scenes of a prime minister fighting for democracy.

Produced by Tamás Lajos on behalf of Film Positive Prod., Blockade enjoys support from Hungary’s NFI (National Film Institute). Filming unfolded mainly in Budapest, with András Nagy helming photography. The movie’s release in Hungarian cinemas will be steered by Intercom as of 27 October. The international sales are handled by NFI World Sales.

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(Translated from French)

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