Sex, lots of alcohol, female conversation, a white horse trudging through the streets, and stark black-and-white cinematography? These are just a few of the elements Hungarian actor Renato Olasz brings to the screen in his directorial debut, Minor Stars ( Minden Csillag ), which examines nostalgia and loneliness. Executive produced by none other than Hungarian auteur Béla Tarr . The film, billed as a comedy but also containing drama, only debuted online in the world competition at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival .
"A brother and sister return home from the Christmas capital to reunite with childhood friends and make love," reads a synopsis. "They party. They drink a lot. Nothing is the same as before. But everything is okay, right?"
"Through the brothers' eyes, we observe an abandoned city, where time has frozen, and experience some rural Hungarian destinies," he continues. "The brothers must confront some questions: Where do they go now that they're 30? What did they imagine their lives would be like when they were teenagers?"
Olasz and his co-playwright Anna don't have a script, choosing instead to discuss their themes and scenes rather than just leave more to improvisation. The cast consists of Olasz, Andrea Waskovics, Emőke Pál, and János Szén. Csaba Bantó handled the cinematography, with Judit Czakó as editor, and music by Mészáros Aadm.
The producer of Minor Stars is Genovéva Petrovits of Kino Alpha.
Thr asked Olasz about adding targeted resources to his resume, how he handled the dual duties of director and actor, his relationship with Tarr, and how he made the film on a low budget with little hope of support from the Hungarian government.
The filmmaker doesn't see his new directing credit as a big leap from his acting work. "I have a master's degree in directing. I finished school before going to college, but from my age, including high school, when I had a drama class, I directed a lot of plays and also acted in them," he explained. "So I have this passion for creating, and I wanted to translate that into the filmmaking process. And I like creating in a community."
Olasz met Tarr when he taught a workshop in Budapest. “Since then, we’ve been friends, and he’s my mentor, my teacher,” Olasz told Thr . “He supported me throughout the entire film process. Unfortunately, he’s currently in the hospital due to a health issue and can’t be here, but he’s been sending me messages. We really like each other.”
There's really a central lesson he learned from Tarro. "Béla teaches only one thing: be yourself," he explained. "Just do what you truly feel and don't care about any rules."
One of the inspirations for the film and its location in Olasz's hometown was a scouting trip. "My cinematographer and I are good friends, and we were on a scout for another project in our hometown one night, and we just happened to be passing by. I asked him to do a street shoot," the director recalled. "And when we saw the footage, we realized this city was fucking empty and everything had changed. You know, it looked like a movie set or something. And that was this experience that got me down. It was like a slap in the face. Everyone moved abroad or to the capital. It was crazy, but it inspired me."
One thing, however, hasn't changed: the pub featured prominently in the film is where Olasz spent much of his young life. "The real pub was the pub of my childhood and adolescence," says Olasz. "And it's true what I say at the beginning of the film: that my parents fell in love with that bar. It feels the same as it did 40 years ago. Nothing has changed. Time stood still there. That's why I chose this place because it holds so many memories."
Despite this being her first project, Olasz was adamant about working without a script. “I wanted to try my own method. And because of my theater background, I love creating with the actors, the playwright, and the PDs from the beginning,” Olasz told THR. “So we discovered the themes, topics, and characters together. I kept tons of notes, but we really had ideas for scenes, but no dialogue. Every day we met at the location, talked about what we wanted to shoot that day and what we wanted to express in the scenes, and we came up with everything.”
The main themes the creatives wanted to explore included "nostalgia and melancholy," Olasz said. "But my goal was to combine the language of poetic films with really raw and naturalistic things. I just miss movies with real-life things—you know, everyone throwing up or using dirty words. It's just a part of life—not just depressing stuff, but also humor and jokes and everything. I like films that are full of life."
Olasz cited John Cassavetes as one of his favorite filmmakers. "I really like how he dealt with real life, how we exist, how we behave," he said. "I just like observing these kinds of things."
So what is the significance of the white horse shown repeatedly throughout the film? “There is no exact meaning. I’m not philosophical,” said filmmaker Thr . “I wanted something emotional for the audience’s brain and soul. The white horse could be a dream, it could be reality, it could be anything. The meaning is up to you. I’m not a scumbag. I didn’t want to give it any meaning so I could let the audience members think and feel whatever they want.”
Does Olasz have a new idea for a second directorial venture? "I have an idea," said Thr, but mentioned that money remains a challenge. "We created this film without much money, so I tried to work in a low-budget way, not on a budget," he said. In Hungary, "it's impossible" to obtain funding due to Viktor Orbán's right-wing government, Olasz said. "If you're not loyal to the government, you can't get money. If you're not a propagandist, you can't get money. It's really difficult to work in Hungary under these circumstances."
