The movie
Natural Light
This fiction tells a grim tale of Hungarian soldiers, allied with the Axis powers, on the hunt for Russian partisans in the forests of Ukraine during WWII.
Length: 103 min
Country: Hungary
Language spoken: Hungarian
Language subtitles: Dutch
Cast: Ferenc Szabó, László Bajk, Tamás Garbacz
Director: Dénes Nagy
Release date: 2021
Description
Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival, Dénes Nagy’s fiction debut tells a grim tale of Hungarian soldiers, allied with the Axis powers, on the hunt for Russian partisans in the forests of Ukraine during WWII. Nagy immerses us in the grime and the mud and the grim reality of the foot soldiers’ lives, focusing primarily on Corporal Semetka (Ferenc Szabó), an implacable, stone-faced Everyman who has seen more than his share of suffering…
‘An absorbing, beautifully crafted, thought-provoking addition to the new Hungarian cinematic wave that started building, arguably, with Kornel Mundruczo’s “White God” in 2014… Documentary director Nagy’s first foray into drama shares with [that film] a fresh new take on the formal possibilities of the medium, some impressive work with actors, and a tendency to recast personal, historical or political traumas as waking dreams and/or nightmares.’—Lee Marshall, Screen
‘An absorbing, beautifully crafted, thought-provoking addition to the new Hungarian cinematic wave that started building, arguably, with Kornel Mundruczo’s “White God” in 2014… Documentary director Nagy’s first foray into drama shares with [that film] a fresh new take on the formal possibilities of the medium, some impressive work with actors, and a tendency to recast personal, historical or political traumas as waking dreams and/or nightmares.’—Lee Marshall, Screen
