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historical films, theater, rockmusicals
HUNGARIAN MILLENNIUM ON STAGE AND FILM
As a part of the millennial festivities, the city council of Pécsvárad staged Zsolt Pozsgai’s newly commissioned historical drama, the Boldog Asztrik küldetése (Mission of Blessed Astrik) about an otherwise not "blessed" historical figure from the times of St. Stephen; the drama is still played in a Budapest theatre (Pesti Magyar Színház). Levente Szörényi, the composer of a number of historic rock operas, prepared new performances of his older pieces, and added further ones to them. His István a király (Stephen the king, 1983) and his Attila Isten kardja (Attila sword of God, 1993) were played several times in 2000-2001, including a mise en scène of the former at Csíksomlyó (Transylvania) as well. The opening night of his Veled Uram (With you, my Lord), the continuation of István a király, was part of the official festivities at Esztergom on 19 August 2000. His most recent work is Árpád népe: Misztikus rock opera (Árpád’s people: Mystical rock opera). The Hungarian Millennium gave inspiration to filmmakers as well. The state has commissioned two films of enormous budget, the feature film Sacra corona, and the opera film Bánk Bán. Both movies were set in the Middle Ages in the eleventh and the thirteenth century. The moment of self-irony largely missing from the festivities has appeared with a third movie, Magyar Vándor (Hungarian Rambler), which had great success.