Who Cares About Pál Frenák will have its Hungarian premiere at the 21st CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival
- dora
- Sep 2
- 2 min read
Who Cares About Pal Frenak will be screened in Hungary on Sunday, September 7, at 18:00 at the 21st CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival in the Uránia Hall of the House of Arts. The film presents the extraordinary life of Pál Frenák, the internationally acclaimed French-Hungarian contemporary dance choreographer, while also serving as a universal metaphor for the mechanism of creation. The screening will be followed by an audience meeting with Pál Frenák and director Glória Halász. The film will be shown once more on Monday 8 September at 21:00 in the Peace Room of the House of Arts.
The film is a portrait of Pál Frenák, from his traumatic childhood to his current success, and how his commitment to art has allowed him to play out tragedy and his inner demons. The film follows the heroic odyssey of the choreographer, born the eighth hearing child of deaf-mute parents, who was sent to an orphanage at the age of six following the untimely death of his father. He learnt that only the art of movement and dance could save him from the trauma of growing up without a family in an emotionless and repressive communist country. After leaving Budapest as a young man, he finally found himself in the open culture of Paris and blossomed.
Pál Frenák's first language was sign language, and his resistance to communicating in a common language made his life difficult until he came to Paris, where he had to learn French. His special ability lies in his ability to convey the tragic and the comic, the absurd and the profound, the sacred and the profane. Her exciting use of text, music and design, and her fascination with the world of male and female sensuality, captivate audiences time and again. Company FrenAk, Pál Frenák's company, is today one of the best-known cutting-edge contemporary dance theatre companies in Europe and Asia.
The film was screened to international audiences in New York at the 53rd Dance on Camera Festival, the world's oldest dance-themed film festival, in Spain at the 36th Girona Film Festival and in Berlin at Film Hungaricum, and was nominated for a Chita Rivera Award in New York in May 2025. The Chita Rivera Awards recognise excellence in dance and choreography in the Broadway, Off-Broadway and film worlds, as well as dance-themed film. Who Cares About Pal Frenak is nominated in the Outstanding Director in a Documentary category. The prestigious awards ceremony took place at NYU New York's Skirball Center and featured stars such as the legendary Ben Vereen, Stephen Schwartz, Prince of Egypt and Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz and Usher.
Who Cares About Pal Frenak was independently financed over nearly ten years under the direction of New York-based producer Vittoria de Bruin, also known as the producer of the musical film City of Klezmer, featuring the Budapest Klezmer Band. The director is Gloria Halász, who has directed several dance-related productions, including the documentary Three Dances, which features male students studying classical ballet, and the dance education production In the Mirror, which was inspired by the world of classical ballet and premiered at the National Dance Theatre.
Tickets are available for purchase:
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