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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Hungary

First clapperboard to slam on Erasing Frank in July

by 

- Steered by Frank Production and Otherside Stories, Gábor Fabricius’s first feature takes a peak behind the Iron Curtain and to the heart of the state-led oppression of anti-conformist minds

First clapperboard to slam on Erasing Frank in July
Director Gábor Fabricius (© Bertalan Soós)

Having distinguished himself with his short films, notably Skinner (unveiled in Toronto) and Dialogue (International Federation of Film Clubs’ Special Jury Award), Gábor Fabricius will begin shooting his first feature-length offering Erasing Frank [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gábor Fabricius
film profile
]
in July

Revolving around the oppressive use of psychiatry for political gain, the screenplay scooped the “Best Vision – First Feature in Development” award in Karlovy Vary and was selected for Sarajevo’s Cinelink Festival, for the Tallinn Film Festival’s Baltic Events competition, for the Creative Europe Media Sources2 programme and for MIDPOINT. It also did itself proud in the Vienna Let’s CEE International Film Festival Forum and was shortlisted to participate in the Sundance Lab.

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Written by the director, the script takes us back to 1983 and behind the Iron Curtain. Frank, a charismatic singer in an underground band, struggles to find his place in the totalitarian regime’s Orwellian silence and is unable to keep quiet. He’s detained in a politically-motivated psychiatric institution where, behind closed doors, the system works to reduce its enemies to silence by way of torture. And so begins a laborious journey in search of answers to society’s dilemmas.

"Erasing Frank is a hymn to all those talented individuals whose lives have been ruined, who have been expelled, killed or driven to suicide by the many schizophrenic dictatorships the world has seen. Millions of people live in a world where evil deeds are covered up through collective silence, a common, defining feature of the dictatorships which have traumatised millions of human beings" stresses Gábor Fabricius. "Erasing Frank is, of course, a fiction film, but it is also based on far-reaching, personal and historical research aimed at unearthing a string or a mosaic of micro-stories, fragments, in memory of those who have been excluded, unfairly stigmatised, humiliated or destroyed."

Produced by Tamás Dér on behalf of Frank Production, in association with Otherside Stories (the director’s outfit), Erasing Frank enjoys the support of the National Film Institute of Hungary. Filming is due to unfold over six weeks with Tamás Dobos (Genesis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Árpád Bogdán, Andrea Taschler
film profile
]
) in the cast and with editing in the hands of Bernadett Tuza-Ritter (A Woman Captured [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
).

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