Screening of Béla Ternovszky's film "Macskafogó" (Cat City) followed by discussion
Macskafogó (Cat City)by Béla Ternovszky
Animation, Hungary / Germany / Canada, 1986, 96minutes / VOSTF
On Planet X, the mouse people are in danger: gangster cats, trampling on the ancient agreements between cats and mice, are preparing to slaughter them all entirely. At the last moment, when the leaders of the mice have come to consider leaving the planet, a mouse spy is secretly sent to discover the plans for a machine that could save all the mice.
Born in 1943, Béla Ternovszky studied at the Philosophy and Aesthetics Department of the Evening University of Marxism-Leninism , where he graduated in 1964. He went on to work at the Pannónia Film Studio, then at the Film Company. His first short film, Modern Training Methods, won numerous awards at national and international festivals. In 1966, he enjoyed festival success with Öt perc gyilkosság, written by József Nepp. In 1979, Ternovszky worked for the Bayerischer Rundfunk television company with Infafilm in Germany. After completing his successful TV series Pumukli, he became co-owner of Stúdió II. Ltd. where he also worked as a director for over twenty years. He gained international renown with the cartoon Macskafogó in 1986, for which he would direct a sequel in 2007.
A pioneering work not only in the history of Hungarian animation, but worldwide, Macskafogó has become an international classic since its theatrical release in 1986.
Animatik.hu
This pastiche of spy films, with its car chases, explosions, erotic thrills and spectacular musical numbers, is a film that imagines a new social organization through the prism of irreconcilable racial difference, and thus bears witness to racist reflexes in the popular Hungarian discourse of the 1980s.
Gábor Gergely - Ethnic and Racial Difference in the Hungarian Animated Features Macskafogó/Cat City (1986) and Macskafogó 2/Cat City 2 (2007)
The screening will be followed by a discussion with :
- Zoltán Maros, director, main character designer of the Macskafogó characters
- Anna Maros, diplomat
Followed by a vin d'honneur in the 2ᵉ floor lobby.
