FREE FALL ORATORIO
by Tibor Szemző and Péter Forgács

Working in tandem, Tibor Szemző and Péter Forgács have long been presenting us with the documents of a lost world. Their "Private History" is in fact very public: few of the events or pictures fail to afford identification with oneself, one's own ancestors, family photographs, unwritten memories or stories. What is true about the pictures is also true about the sound: the music now concretely, now remotely, but in every instance, generates the feeling of an "objet trouvé". Aesthetics is brought about not so much by intention; rather, it comes as a result of the joint efforts of the audience on the receiving end, and the creator providing the conditions of reception. Only this way can we view as a film such intimacy which would appear improper even to a private company
of one's closest friends; and only this way can something become music that would never stand up to being printed.

László Vidovszky

FREE FALL / THE PETO SAGA

When all the Jews of the Nazi occupied Europe vanished, the Hungarian Jewish community was still intact in the early spring of 1944. What happened with the Hungarian Jews, in a country which was a close ally to the third Reich since the beginning of the war. This story has been already told in several ways. One could hear the painful confessions of innocent peoples' death marches, and see thousand meters of provoking film images of the nazi science and of the bureaucratic mass homicide system.

The Hungarian Holocaust - a private history saga - is recited by Free Fall Oratorio.
How did it happen?
How did they fall, fall down, and / or in?
Gravity.
How one suppress the fearful signs of threatening evidences?
Slowly eroding security unpredictable events, and hopes, until the last ...
Do you understand the Hungarian Jewish Law, if 'angels' voice recites them in to your ear?

The homemovies of Mr. György Pető is the magic sources of the Free Fall Oratorio.
The images are recorded from the late thirties to the sixties, and the original films preserved by the Private Photo & Film Archives, Budapest.

Mr. Pető was a talented violin player, a banker - class lottery businessman in the southern Hungarian City Szeged. He survived the
Jewish Forced Labor and the Soviet POW camp.
After returning in 1946 he had to learn, many of his family members - including the mother, son and brother - were killed. After the
brutal war all his property was confiscated, now by the communist regime in 1949. He escaped with his family to Budapest and
established himself as viola player in the Budapest Operetta Theater

The text of Free Fall Oratorio is based on Peto family memories, historical documents and the Hungarian Jewish Laws (1938-1944).

The live concert oratorio follows the film created by the authors.

Awards of "Free Fall" Documentary 1996/97 (75 min.):
'BUDAPEST Film Week' 1997: the 'Best Short and Experimental film' prize
Berlin Prix Europe 1997, the 'Best Non Fiction of the Year'
Marseilles 1997, vue sur le docs, International Documentary Film Festival
'Grand Prix' and CNC 'Special Prix'
Leipzig 1997 'FIPRESCI Prize'
Hungarian Film critics prize 1997 'Best Non Fiction Film' and 'Best Music' award

The public performances of Free Fall Oratorio:
25-26 July 1999 Szeged, Hungary, Old Synagogue building (Hungarian)
3 October 1999 Nagykanizsa, Hungary, Old Synagogue building (Hungarian)
21 October 1999 Budapest, Hungary, Páva utca Synagogue building (Hungarian)
21 May 2000 Cluj Napoca (Kolozsvár), Rumania, Synagogue building (Hungarian)
23 July 2000. San Francisco, Castro Theatre, at SF Jewish Film Festival (English)
29 July 2000. Berkeley, CA. UC Theatre, at SF Jewish Film Festival (English)
17-18 August 2000 Zuerich, Schwitzerland, Theaterspektakel, International Theatre Festival (English)
30 September 2000 Samorin, Slovakia, Old Synagogue building (Hungarian)
12 September 2001 Goethe Institute, Budapest
15 September 2001 Goethe Forum, München