Találkozás

A woman who knows what life is about, but wants more from it. When she made TALÁLKOZÁS (Encounter), Judit Elek was 25 years old and one of the very first women to be admitted to the Hungarian Academy for Theatre and Film Art to study film direction. This first true entry to her filmography is an unusual debut – so mature, so subtle, so deliberately undefined in its narration and yet so certain in its form, a cross between fiction and documentary methods which received a frosty response when presented to the Hungarian film authorities by the Budapest Filmstúdió and the Balázs Béla Stúdió founded only three years previously. The film observes a woman working as a nurse, how she takes care of others, styles herself in front of the mirror and heads off to a rendezvous which turns out to be reserved at best, not least because the not-so-very-young bachelor shows much less emotion than she was maybe expecting. A conversation at a café and on a park bench in Pest – before both go their separate ways. It was said that the film was too sad, too amateurish. But Miklós Jancsó saw it differently and helped with the editing, Louis Marcorelles then discovered it: cinéma vérité! (Barbara Wurm)

Filmmaker and screenwriter Judit Elek (1937–2025) graduated in 1961 from the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest and joined Mafilm as an assistant director. Between 1962 and 2011, she made multiple short films, documentaries and features. In her stories she explored difficult social situations, human loneliness, and attempts to establish contact. Her films are characterized by deep social sensitivity and a documentary approach. During her career, she was invited to the Film Festivals in Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Locarno, Mannheim and Oberhausen.

Director Judit Elek. Screenplay Judit Elek. Cinematography István Zöldi. Music András Szöllősy. Producer Laura Horváth. Executive Producer István Daubner. Production companies Balázs Béla Stúdió (Budapest, Hungary), Budapest Filmstúdió (Budapest, Hungary). With Iván Mándy.

World sales National Film Institute Hungary - Film Archive

Films: 1963: Találkozás / Encounter. 1966: Kastélyok lakói / Inhabitants of Castles in Hungary in 1966 (short film). 1968: Meddig él az ember? I-II / How Long Does Man Live?. 1969: Sziget a szárazföldön / The Lady from Constantinople. 1972: Találkozunk 1972-ben (Sötétben-világosban) / We Will Meet in 1972 (In Dark and in Light). 1974: Istenmezején 1972–73-ban / On The Field of God in 1972–73, Az első fénykép / Tamás Cseh: The First Photo. 1975: Egyszerű történet / A Commonplace Story. 1979: Majd holnap / Maybe Tomorrow. 1981: Vizsgálat Martinnovics Ignác szászvári apát és társai ügyében / The Trial of Martinovics and the Hungarian Jacobins. 1984: Mária-nap / Maria’s Day. 1989: Tutajosok / Memories of a River. 1995: Ébredés / Awakening. 1996: Mondani a mondhatatlant – Elie Wiesel üzenete / To Speak the Unspeakable – The Message of Elie Wiesel. 1998: Egy szabad ember – Fisch Ernő élete / A Free Man – The Life of Erno Fisch. 2006: A hét nyolcadik napja / The Eighth Day of the Week. 2018: És a halottak újra énekelnek… / After All the Dead Sing Again. 2019: Visszatérés / Retrace: Digital Director’s Cut.