Best Hungarian drama movies

Son of Saul (2015)

In the horror of 1944 Auschwitz, a prisoner forced to burn the corpses of his own people finds moral survival trying to save from the flames the body of a boy he takes for his son, seeking to give him a proper jewish burial.

Savior (1998)

A hardened mercenary in the Foreign Legion begins to find his own humanity when confronted with atrocities during the fighting in Bosnia.

The Fifth Seal (1976)

In 1944 Budapest, one of a group of four friends poses a hypothetical moral question to the others, an act that will unexpectedly alter their lives forever.

The Red and the White (1967)

In 1919, Hungarian Communists aid the Bolsheviks' defeat of Czarists, the Whites. Near the Volga, a monastery and a field hospital are held by one side and then the other.

The Notebook (2013)

In a village on the Hungarian border, two young brothers grow up during war time with their cruel grandmother and must learn every trick of evil to survive in the absurd world of adults.

Tall Tales (2019)

Shortly after the end of World War II, a con man on the run finds himself in a passionate love affair that may well cost him his life.

The Round-Up (1966)

After the failure of the Kossuth's revolution of 1848, people suspected of supporting the revolution are sent to prison camps. Years later, partisans led by outlaw Sándor Rózsa still run rampant. Although the authorities do not know the identities of the partisans, they round up suspects and try to root them out by any means necessary.

My Way Home (1965)

In the aftermath of World War II, a Hungarian teenager, captured by Soviet troops, forms an unlikely bond with a Russian soldier in a remote prison camp.

Natural Light (2021)

World War II, occupied Soviet Union. István Semetka is a simple Hungarian farmer who serves as a Sub-Lieutenant in a special unit scouting for partisan groups. On their way to a remote village, his company falls under enemy fire. As the commander is killed, Semetka has to overcome his fears and take command of the unit as he is dragged into a chaos that he cannot control.

Libertate (2023)

Sibiu, December 1989. In the chaos and panic generated by the protests of the crowd against the authorities, a unit of the militia becomes the target of a violent assault that escalates into a bloody confrontation between soldiers, militiamen, security agents, and civilians. Trying to escape the siege, Captain Viorel of the militia is captured and accused of being a terrorist.

Red Psalm (1972)

Set in the 1890s on the Hungarian plains, a group of farm workers go on strike in which they face harsh reprisals and the reality of revolt, oppression, morality and violence.

Two Half-Times in Hell (1961)

To celebrate Hitler's birthday, a soccer match is organised between the Germans and a group of Hungarian political prisoners, one of whom is a famous pre-war football star.

The Debt (2010)

Rachel Singer is a former Mossad agent who tried to capture a notorious Nazi war criminal – the Surgeon of Birkenau – in a secret Israeli mission that ended with his death on the streets of East Berlin. Now, 30 years later, a man claiming to be the doctor has surfaced, and Rachel must return to Eastern Europe to uncover the truth. Overwhelmed by haunting memories of her younger self and her two fellow agents, the still-celebrated heroine must relive the trauma of those events and confront the debt she has incurred.

The Exam (2011)

Budapest, Hungary, Christmas 1957. The state, insecure after the defeated revolution of 1956 and increasingly put under the influence of a renewed Stalinist atmosphere, has decreed that all security officials must pass an exam to verify their loyalty. But to be actually effective in a shadowy world where suspicion and secrets reign, the subjects must be unaware that they are being tested.

The Game (2022)

During the Cold War, the secret service of Kádár began a more dangerous state security game than ever before.

The Grandson (2022)

Rudi, a polite and quiet office hand, shares a special bond with his elderly grandpa. When Grandpa falls victim to a uniquely heartless phone scam that breaks his spirit and his health, Rudi decides he’s not going to let the petty criminals get away with it. But in order to get close to them, he needs to step far out of his comfort zone and turn into a different person. With a band of grey-haired allies on his side, he might just get to the scammers before it’s too late…

The Mentor (2018)

Sarah, the lonely teenager joins an Internet group which deals with teenagers' emotional problems. Her mentor, who listens to all her troubles, gives Sarah tasks that she has to fulfil to become stronger. The Mentor's tasks get stranger and crueller.

Last Dracula's blood (2018)

Vlad Dracula is imprisoned in the Hungarian castle. The judge reads the charges to him. The terrible outcome is near.

The White King (2016)

Djata is a care-free 12-year-old growing up in a brutal dictatorship shut off from the outside world. When the government imprisons his father, Peter, and Djata and his mother Hannah are labeled traitors, the boy will not rest until he sees his father again.

His Master's Voice (2018)

A Hungarian journalist who is about to start a family journeys to the United States in the hopes of finding his own father, a scientist who went missing in the 1970s while working on a top secret military research project that examined 'voices' from outer space.

In Another Life (2019)

To inherit the fortune he made in his previous life a man must become his previous incarnation again.

On Body and Soul (2017)

Two introverted people find out by pure chance that they share the same dream every night. They are puzzled, incredulous, a bit frightened. As they hesitantly accept this strange coincidence, they try to recreate in broad daylight what happens in their dream.

Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen (2012)

A film where anything can happen - the hero and the heroine changes their faces, age, look, names, and so on. The only same thing: The love between man and woman... in an archetypical love story cut from 500 classics from all around the world.

The Story of My Wife (2021)

A sea captain makes a bet in a cafe with a friend that he will marry the first woman who walks in.

Eternal Winter (2018)

The true story of an unlikely romance in a Soviet labor camp.

Merry-Go-Round (1956)

In a rural scenery in the throes of difficult changes lives a humble but promising young farmer girl called Mari Pataki. Her father forbids her from seeing the man she loves. The father, above all preoccupied by work on the fields and prospective wealth, decides to give his daughter in marriage to an old but rich man with whom he does business. Land marries land, he says. This seems to be the unyielding rule of the Hungarian peasantry. But the young lover is ready to stand up to any challenge to keep Maris love.

Desperately (2025)

Question in Details (2010)

Two perfect strangers. A blind date. An urban legend.

Black Diamond (1977)

The Man of Gold (1962)

Adaptation of Mór Jókai's classic 19th century novel on Mihály Tímár, the captain of a commercial Danube ship in the 1830s, who finds unexpected fortune by meeting a Turkish aristocrat fleeing from his home country with his daughter Tímea. On their journey, they find an unknown island on the Danube, called the Senki szigete (the Island of No-one), a sort of earthly paradise, with only an old woman and her young daughter Noémi living on it.