Director Endre Hules' New Film: The Maiden Danced to Death

Endre Hules, a panelist for SEE FEST’s Filmmakers Panel at our last annual business conference, can only be described as an incredibly talented writer and director. His career, which spans several decades and hails innumerous triumphs, now includes his newest film The Maiden Danced to Death – a beautifully woven tapestry of a film that depicts a rival between two brothers over a dance that will save their careers, and a woman they both love.

Born and raised in Hungary, Hules studied music and acting at the Cellar Theatre in Budapest and started writing plays and directing them at 17. He went on to graduate from the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts as a director, dipping his feet television and radio before moving to Paris and then New York, teaching acting, writing, and directing at conservatories, universities and workshops on three continents.  Soon he moved to Los Angeles to make films, and ended up acting in several dozen Hollywood movies and television shows. He has funded his films with the support of companies and grants in ten different countries, won numerous festival awards, as well as audience and jury awards. To add to his repertoire, The Maiden Danced to Death went on to win 24 awards at various film festivals, including Winner at the Los Angeles Movie Awards (2012), and Best Actor at the Hungarian Film Week (2011).

The Maiden Danced to Death features a complex plot riddled with references from communist-era Hungary, that fades between dance and music as the main character Steve attempts to smooth over the ripples of his past. Steve, a dancer-turned-dance-impresario returns to his native Hungary after a 20-year absence. The Communist regime that expelled him is gone, his former apparatchik father has retired in disgrace, but his younger brother, Gyula still works in the same run-down studio with the same cash-strapped dance company they both started out in - and he is married to Steve's former sweetheart, Mari. The two brothers decide to revive their last project together, a dance piece based on the old ballad, The Maiden Danced to Death. If Gyula makes it to Steve's exacting standards, Steve can take it on a world tour, reviving the sagging careers of both.

By all means, if you have a chance to watch The Maiden Danced to Death, please do. The impressive choreography of Zoltán Zsuráfszky with The Honvéd Dance Theater, and the original score alone will leave you captivated, and Hules’ plot surely will leave you with something think about for days.