Sas has flipped back and forth between near-experimental art house works and unbearable mainstream mush. Andrew James Horton finds his latest commercial film to be a convincing popular work, despite being marketed at teenaged girls.
The career of Tamás Sas in Hungary has been as erratic as that of Gus van Sant in Hollywood, veering from art house chamber drama aimed at adults to mass market films with a generic feel. Moreover, both directors have a tendency to depict young people, with Sas paying particular attention to capturing the way street Hungarian is spoken. (His 1997 debut, Presszó / Espresso shocked Hungarians with its depictions of young female Magyars “intruding” onto the usually male-only linguistic domain of colourful swearing.) Where the two directors differ is that Sas, who started his long career in film as a director of photography and who also makes commercials, seems more committed to popular forms
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