World premiere
Pelikan Blue
This year the Critic’s Pick competition features its first animation, “Pelikan Blue”, by László Csáki.
Surely everyone who grew up before 1989 on the “eastern side” of the Iron Curtain will relate to this astonishing animation. The film follows three young Hungarians, who decide to travel to the West with fake train tickets. What starts as a fun idea turns quickly into a lucrative black-market job model. Soon the authorities are on their tracks. The film is based on an original idea by Gabor Sipos, who produced the Oscar-winning “Son of Saul”.
The visual style is unique and matches the topic, we immediately feel transferred to those times. The documentary footage is chosen wisely and is very entertaining. This outstanding animation makes you relive those “dark” times hoping that they never return.
Niki Nikitin
Laszlo Csaki (1977) graduated from the Hungarian University of Arts and Design’s (now Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design) Department of Visual Communication. János Szirtes was his teacher and mentor. He is an interdisciplinary artist who feels equally comfortable creating animated films, live-action short films, documentaries, music videos, or advertisements. His photography, marquetry, and print-based artworks were presented at solo and group exhibitions in Hungary and abroad. He is both an auteur and creates work on commission. From 2005 to 2015, he was a lecturer of animation and media design at MOME, and from 2006 to 2008 he was the head of the media design programme. Since 2013 he has been teaching animation at the Budapest Metropolitan University. "Pelikan Blue" is the first Hungarian feature-length animated documentary.
Filmography:
Az ifjúság megnyugtat (2002, co-dir), Kék Pelikan (Pelikan Blue, 2023)