The Grand Prix Crystal Globe and the Europa Cinema Label went to THE NOTEBOOK by János Szász. The adaptation of the eponymous novel by Agota Kristof was co-produced by Hungary, Germany, Austria and France, the images composed by Austrian cinematographer Christian Berger.

THE NOTEBOOK 
directed by: János Szász 
(Hunnia Filmstúdió (H), Intuit Pictures (D), Amour Fou Filmproduktion (A), Dolce Vita (F))
Austrian support by: Filmfonds Wien, FISA
supported by: MNFA, NEFMI, MMKA, Dialóg Stúdió, MBB, MDM, DFFF, CNC, Media, Eurimages

directed by János Szász
written by János Szász and András Szekér based on the novel by Agota Kristof
with: András and László Gyémánt, Piroska Monlár, Ulrich Thomsen, Ulrich Matthes, Sabin Tambrea

At the end of World War II, Hungary´s Cities are infested by dearth. Hoping to save the lives of her twins, a young mother brings them to their grandmother nearby a little town. Grandmother, whom they call the Witch, harbors the boys expextant that they may be useful to her. She drinks a lot and carries an attitude of cruel and icy dispassion, making them work hard and showing them no love. But they are wilier than she, spying on her through holes in the floor of the attic she can no longer reach, deliberately wounding each other to inure themselves to pain and learning the language of the occupying forces. They articulate those experiences in their very own bible, they simply call „The Notebook“. Hereby they try to keep their remarks as detailed and emotionessless as possible. They teach each other to be hard, cold and callous, hoping to learn surviving. The conclusio leads the fable to a bitter truth: trying to survive they learned the language of warefare; but then, without even noticing, they became evils’ proponents.

International sales: Beta Cinema