#generations #housing #documentary

The 23rd Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival is one of the country's longest-running and most visited film festivals. 

It features new creative documentaries to be discovered, as well as festival-winning international and Hungarian films, presenting diverse narratives from global issues to the most personal stories.

Opening speech: Angéla Koczó, Sociologist, Chair of Romani Studies Program at CEU

The opening film of the 23rd Verzió is
Papa
91 min, 2026, Hungary
director: Attila Ponczók 

'Papa' follows Attila Ponczók’s irascible grandfather as a lifetime of generational patriarchal patterns collides with Hungary’s housing crisis. His pride upends his devoted sons’ lives as they struggle to find him a home and battle the labyrinthine, ineffective social system meant to protect him.

The film won the Best Documentary Award at the 45th Hungarian Film Festival.

Attila Ponczók is a Hungarian documentary filmmaker and producer. He previously worked as a producer on Ghetto Balboa, which premiered in competition at the Sarajevo Film Festival in 2018. Papa is his feature directorial debut and grew out of his family’s own experience with the Hungarian elderly care system.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with director Attila Ponczók, cinematographer Róbert Bordás and producer Ábel Kocsó. The discussion will be moderated by Zsuzsa Debre, programmer of Verzió.