THE TRAGEDY IN MOSCOW

The most interesting animated films from the Visegrád countries are screened this week in Moscow in cinema 35MM. The programme called „Animation – In the Heart of Europe“. The Tragedy of Man by Marcell Jankovics, is one of the highlights of the festival. I was invited – as one of the graphic designers of the film – to participate in the event. The Tragedy of Man is probably the longest made film of Hungarian film history. The script was written in 1983 and production started in 1988. I was working in the early 90s in the Tragedy. The film was finished in the end of the last year. The Tragedy of Man by the greatest Hungarian dramatist, Imre Madách was translated into 90 languages. The first Russian translations were made in the end of the 19th century.  Also Maxim Gorky ordered a translation for a new edition of the drama. There is an other interesting Russian connection: the first illustrator of the Tragedy was Mihály Zichy; he was the court painter of Emperor Alexander III at that time. It means that probaly the tsar was the first Russian, who was informed about the Tragedy.