SZINDBÁD
dir. Zoltán Huszárik, 1971.
Hungary, 90 min.
In Hungarian with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, MAY 9 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, MAY 21 – 10 PM

“SZINDBÁD is a wildly sensuous reverie, justly regarded as one of the great movies of the Hungarian Sixties.” —J. Hoberman, The New York Review of Books

A singular work of unparalleled, intoxicating beauty, SZINDBÁD is one of cinema’s greatest hidden gifts.

The titular character is a charming, dying casanova reflecting on his romantic escapades with various women. As he inches closer and closer to the oblivion, every past love ignites a different memory.

Driven more by atmosphere than a linear narrative, the film is told through a series of flashbacks that interweave and overlap in a gorgeous tapestry of colors, seasons, and moods. Utilizing his experimental film background, Huszárik creates something wholly original in narrative cinema that effectively predates the elliptical editing of Nicholas Roeg and the ornate visual romanticism of Terrence Malick. Indeed, the film is loaded with so much rich symbolism and lush imagery that it takes several viewings to unpack its mysteries and majesty.

Above everything, though, SZINDBÁD taps into a deeply romantic, deeply personal sensibility that simply envelops the viewer into its own unique universe.

The phrase ‘lost masterpiece’ tends to get thrown around a lot in repertory film circles, but we’re going to go out on a limb here and proclaim SZINDBÁD a lost masterpiece. We think you’ll agree. Hyperbole be damned.