But why did a film director from Budapest travel with his thriller all the way to Transylvania? What makes him tackle freezing cold temperatures?  

Mining thriller?

I’d rather call it trans-noir that is a Transylvanian crime thriller. The story sets in a little mountain town that used to be a mining camp, but once the mine was closed down, the citizens began falling down the wrong road, which determined the crime threads as well as the human power relations. Wedged between mountains, the town sees the visual confrontation of the nature and the industrial zone – this image was living in my head, when writing the story. I imagined a thriller in which the crime and the drama of the lead character are key, while social factors inevitably infiltrate from the background suffusing the everyday life of the local people.

Just like in the Scandinavian crime stories?

Exactly. Crime originates from the diverse responses that people give to existential problems. I’m aspired to serve every one’s own truth in this space, where decent existence is a constant struggle, and the eternal question arises, what can you hold on to: money, faith or family?

Béla Bagota (Photo: László Kántor)

What about the story?

It’s a “haunted by the past” kind of story. I believe that you are destined to get back your past problems and sins as long as you manage them. The film Valan begins 22 December 1989, when the news of Ceaușescu’s escape has reached the rural urban areas. The workers attack the police, since fluctuation from the Police to the Securitate turns crucial and due to this chaotic situation, a 13-year-old schoolgirl disappears without trace. The Police ignore the case, but her brother Peter starts the investigation. 22 years later, in the present time of the storyline, Péter has integrated into the justice system and investigates cases relating to child trafficking in Brașov. He sees his own little sister in all the rescued children. When a lead into his sister’s missing presents itself, Péter returns to their hometown and tries to unfold what could have happened to her.

Why did you have to travel all the way to Transylvania with this story?

On writing the script the image of snow and the mining town nestling in the snowy mountains   burned into my brain, and such phenomena can only be seen in the Highlands (Slovakia) or Transylvania. This film is to shoot in a real set, since creating the snowy field with artificial snow or CGI would generate such enormous costs that a first-film-production cannot afford. When we travelled to Transylvania to find spots to the film, I promptly felt that we must make the film there. I must confess that was the first time I had visited Transylvania, but me and my producer László Kántor found Bălan in a few days. Surrounded by high mountains, this old mining town lies in wedged valley creating a depressingly claustrophobic set. When I continued writing the script with this image in my head, the story developed by writing itself. The sources of conflicts that penetrated the story were fed on the environment. However, the scope misses the stereotypes on the nature of the problems between the Romanians and the Transylvanian Hungarians, instead, the focus moves to the regime change in this East Central European country, which was achieved by a violent manner, cruel bloodshed - the ensuing social tensions may be perceptible today even in such a small town. Yet, the most significant motif that came to the film with the location is that child trafficking has been a burning issue both in Romania and Ukraine. Hungary and other EU member states are also affected as third countries of transit, but in Romania, it is a very salient issue, thus it makes the key part of the story how children become victims through the various interests of the adult.    

Valan werk (Photo: László Kántor)

Many have the romantic vision of Transylvania that time has stopped there for centuries and people live in holy simplicity. Do you want to get rid of this archaic image?

The purpose of our journey to Transylvania has nothing to do with making fancy postcards. It is not the intention to idealize the situation out there, not even to present it in a pessimistic manner. My main drive is to create a space, an atmosphere that is as unpretentious and authentic as possible, furthermore, where both ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘nice’ and ‘ugly’ are fuelled by authenticity, instead of purely taking the lead of the story based on the filmmakers’ idea.

How can you judge what counts as credible in Transylvania if you lack any personal experience?

For the script, most of all, you need to understand people, and our tour around the countryside in Transylvania justified my notion on the world and human situations. For instance, how faith and social cohesion function in Bălan, and how local people were affected when the mine there collapsed, for real, 11 years ago. We conducted a deep research, and also my producer László Kántor contributed to the authenticity of the story by adding his personal relations and experiences. In addition, production designer of the film Csaba Damokos was born in Sfântu Gheorghe, which makes him capable to justify authenticity from a visual perspective. I don’t mind that external viewpoint (beyond me) prevails in the story, as the lead character was separated from this little town in his childhood, and he perceives the location as a new, partly unknown space, which helped me identify myself with my lead character.

Csaba Krisztik (Photo: László Kántor)

To what extent do you employ the local accent in the dialogues?

We are about to utilize it as a tool to present the characters, how they use the language, how firm and traceable their accent in their pronunciation, if they speak in Hungarian or Romanian, or in a mixed language, whether they are fluent speakers or they make errors. The actors also shape the dialogues, and it will come together during the intensive rehearsals in January. Ninety per cent of the actors are either transborder Hungarians, or Hungarian-Romanians. We could have taken actors from Budapest to act out that they are local citizens, but that would have ruined the authenticity of the film.    

What caught you in Csaba Krisztik? What made you pick him for the lead role?

I imagined a blondish actor with a charismatic face for the leading role who brings in the Scandinavian feature also by his look. We applied colour codes and his family received a light shade. His little sister, who went missing at the beginning, is also blond and I insisted that her blondness should reflect through her brother’s hair. This narrowed down the circle of potential actors, and suddenly Csaba’s face flashed in my head. I had seen him at castings and taking supporting roles, and I knew that he holds that sort of intellect, intuition and good physique, which reflect on Peter’s character in a complex way. He is a highly motivated and rational man who does his job right, but on returning his hometown, it settles back into his life what he has been trying to push away for decades, he falls apart. Cool intelligence and ancient power was radiating from Csaba Krisztik, he has such physical force and presence that will enable him make the film, since he is going to spend more than 30 days in front of the camera in minus 20-25 degrees.    

Have you found the other actors, too?

We spent two weeks in Transylvania, during that period we found most of the scenes and the characters. It was an exciting tour for me because we all have an existing image of the actors in Budapest, but Transylvania offered genuine explorations. I think figures in Valan will cause a huge surprise to the audience. Being it a thriller, this is important because if we chose a famous actor who is usually seen as the “bad guy”, the lead character would be labelled in no time.  

This is a short version of the interview by Tamás SOÓS, published in Filmtett on 26/12/2017 https://www.filmtett.ro/cikk/4748/az-erdelyi-krimi-is-lehet-olyan-izgalmas-mint-a-skandinav-beszelgetes-bagota-belaval