UCLA film professor prepares

By Howard Ho
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
[email protected]

During the Soviet occupation of Hungary, illegitimate children
were given fictitious fathers by the bureaucracy. This is just one
of the absurdities of Cold War Hungary that UCLA Film and
Television professor Gyula Gazdag portrays in his film, “A
Hungarian Fairy Tale.”

The film will be screened at the Lee Strasberg Creative Center
Wednesday night with Gazdag attending to answer questions
afterward. A native Hungarian, Gazdag began the film after meeting
a government clerk.

“I met a clerk who was inventing names for illegitimate
children. I was really shocked to hear that and she explained to me
how important it was to apply it. My question was what if the
mother dies and the child doesn’t learn the father
doesn’t exist,” Gazdag said.

In the film, a child searches for his nonexistent father after
his mother dies. Mixing with this narrative are surreal moments of
fairy tale, heavily linked to Mozart’s opera, “The
Magic Flute.”

Gazdag prides himself on the political aspects to his film,
which is critical of the Hungarian bureaucracy. For example, a
clerk in the film takes all the old files of fictitious fathers and
burns them. Scenes show children singing military propaganda songs
and learning how to fire guns at targets.

“I didn’t get away with it,” said Gazdag
referring to his political messages, which at one point caused six
of his films to be banned in Hungary.

However, by the time the 1986 “Hungarian Fairy Tale”
screened for the censorship committee, the Soviet state was
weakening. Gazdag’s film, nevertheless, did not get wide
screening in Hungary despite screening at Cannes and other
prestigious film festivals.

Now Gazdag’s films are shown without restrictions in
Hungary. But despite the political freedom, the government-run film
studios collapsed along with the fall of the Soviet Union.

“Politically, Hungary is more free, but financially the
whole filmmaking infrastructure is quite different. It will take
quite a few more years until there will be a solid film
infrastructure again,” Gazdag said.

Gazdag currently teaches film directing in the UCLA graduate
program. He prefers teaching hands-on courses, using his experience
making his films for low budgets (“Fairy Tale” was made
for under $1 million) and small mobile crews (Gazdag’s crew
numbered as little as 10).

At UCLA since 1993, Gazdag has generally shied away from
filmmaking, excepting one documentary. Having made almost all 10 of
his films in Hungary, Gazdag promises to continue making films
along with his teaching career.

“I didn’t give up making films. I enjoy teaching,
but I don’t want to make movies that are not really important
for me or that I don’t feel passionate about. If I can make
movies that are important to me then I will make them,”
Gazdag said.

“A Hungarian Fairy Tale” will be screened Wednesday,
July 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the Lee Strasberg Creative Center. For
reservations, call (323) 650-7777.