Natural Light to Shine in Berlin

The Berlin International Film Festival, to be held in early March, will continue its reputation for showcasing challenging European cinema, with the premier of Hungarian Dénes Nagy’s feature Natural Light (Természetes fény). This marks the first full-length narrative film by the writer/director, whose previous shorts include documentaries Harm and Another Hungary. His TV documentary short, Soft Rain, premiered at the Cannes Festival’s 2013 Directors’ Fortnight.

As per the film festival’s website, the summary of Natural Light is as follows: World War II, occupied Soviet Union. István Semetka is a simple Hungarian farmer who serves as a Caporal 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.

In his director’s statement (via Daily Variety) Nagy commented: “I wanted to observe a man who is not fully aware of what choices he must face. What are the things that lead him to becoming part of a killing? What choices he didn’t make on the way? This is interesting for me. And there is no clear answer to this. We think that we have acquired a clear judgment about things around us, we believe that we know what’s our task in life. The film wants to question this image of ourselves. It wants to show how fragile this image is.”

Daily Variety calls the trailer for the film ‘shocking’, and in its review of Natural Light, singles out the cinematography for praise: “Tamás Dobos’ majestically composed cinematography elicits detached admiration, its stillness furthering the sense of entrapment.”

All in all, this is an impressive start for the film, which will see a broader release later in the year. Below find the trailer for Natural Light, complete with English language subtitles.

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