JOHANNA

This experimental opera film was written directly for the screen by composer Zsófia Tallér. Orsi Tóth plays the title character, a young drug addict brought to a Budapest hospital after a horrific road accident. She recovers and with nowhere to go, stays on at the hospital as a nurse-in-training. Tóth soon discovers that after her near-death experience, she has gained the power of healing--sexual healing. Her unorthodox but effective techniques run afoul of the hospital bureaucracy, culminating in her persecution by the doctors and defense by the afflicted. A visionary and moving film, seemingly as inspired by the cinema of Lars von Trier as by the story of Joan of Arc, which the director claims as his touchstone. Un Certain Regard, 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

DIR Kornél Mundruczó; SCR Yvette Biro and Kornél Mundruczó. Hungary, 2005, color, 83 min. In Hungarian with English subtitles. NOT RATED

Director Kornél Mundruczó was born in Hungary in 1975 and is a graduate of the Hungarian University of Film and Drama. JOHANNA is his second feature film. His first feature film, PLEASANT DAYS, also starring Orsi Tóth, won the Silver Leopard in Locarno in 2002. His student film AFTA (2001) won 14 international awards.

EU Home