After earning an Oscar for Son of Saul, director László Nemes is back with another Hungarian Academy Award entry with Sunset. Following its premiere at Venice and TIFF, the story of a woman in 1913 Budapest as she confronts those in a town that won’t let her take her own path will get a 2019 release from Sony Pictures Classics, who have now debuted the first U.S. trailer.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “As with any righteous character coming up against unfathomable power, it proves a rather unsafe ride. Like Son of Saul, we follow her every movement and Nemes’ Dantean tendencies soon turn Sunset from sumptuous period piece into an escalating nightmare where horrors lie in wait around every corner. Though this dizzying sense of imminent violence is what Nemes does best, some viewers may be put off by how Sunset uses rape in service of what could cynically be described as a thrill ride, à la Son of Saul used the horrors of Auschwitz to similar ends.”
Starring Julie Jakab, Vlad Ivanov, Evelin Dobos, and Marcin Czarnik, see the new trailer below.
1913, Budapest, in the heart of Europe as World War I approaches. The young Irisz Leiter arrives in the Hungarian capital with high hopes to work as a milliner at Leiter, the legendary hat store that once belonged to her late parents; but she is quickly sent away by the new owner, Oszkár Brill. While preparations are under way at the store to host important wealthy, royal guests, a man abruptly comes to Irisz looking for Kálmán Leiter, who he says is her brother. Refusing to leave the city, the young woman follows Kálmán’s tracks, her only link to a lost past. Her quest brings her through the dark, dusty streets of Budapest, where only the Leiter hat store shines, into the turmoil of a civilization on the eve of its downfall.
Sunset opens in 2019.