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The Angelmakers
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The Angelmakers
IDFA 2005

The Angelmakers

Astrid Bussink
Netherlands, Hungary, Scotland
2005
33 min
International Premiere
Festival history
IDFA Award for Best First Appearance
A small village in the Hungarian countryside appears to have a dubious past: in 1929, a series of arsenic murders was exposed here, and 51 women were arrested on suspicion of poisoning their husbands and relatives. The arsenic they used had apparently been taken from flypaper. In total, there were 140 cases of murder, for which many women went to prison. Besides a reconstruction of the killings, this film is a portrait of the present inhabitants of Nagyrev, who all remember something different about the murders. They also muse about the current exodus from the village, are worried about a melon theft and complain about the fact that life in the village is boring: there is no cinema or aerobics club. The desolation and isolation of the village is captured quietly and carefully: a stooped man shuffles past, a house stands empty on the edge of the village. The director filmed at the kitchen table, on the ferry and on a bench in front of a house, where an elderly couple recalls how they got married within two months of meeting one another: "He needed someone to mend the fishing nets."
Credits
Screening copy
Co-production
    ECA Edinburgh,
    SZFE Budapest
    ECA Edinburgh,
    SZFE Budapest