Attila Galambos K.

Chinese Defence - an interview with Gábor Tompa

Chinese Defence by Gábor Tompa was presented at the 30th Hungarian Film Week in February, 1999.


Gábor Tompa, who is best known as theatre director, was born to an artist family with a director and college professor father and an actress mother in Tirgu Mures, Romania. Tompa received his diploma as theatre, film and television director in Bucharest in 1981. As the director of the Hungarian Theatre in Cluj-Napoca he has reformed the company. During his time as director the company has received more than 30 national and international awards. Besides directing and supervising he writes poems and essays - six books of his have come out so far at various Hungarian and Romanian publishers -, he holds classes at Academy for Theatre Art in Tirgu Mures as well as master courses in Western-Europe and overseas. Chinese Defence is his first full-length feature film.

Chinese Defence
(Kínai védelem)
Directed by: Gábor Tompa
Written by: László Csiki, Gábor Tompa
Director of Photography: Tibor Máthé
Edited by: Zsuzsa Csákány
Music by: György Selmeczi
Producer: János Rózsa
Cast: Emil Győry, Iván Dengyel, Maia Morgenstern
Produced by: Film Studio Objektív, MTV (Hungarian Television), Covi Design Film

Content: Chinese Defence is a story of a man who comes home from Siberia following a more than 20-year-long forced labour. Péter György is only informed at the border that while he has been away Transsylvania was attached to Romania. He doesn't understand the changes, his stories make the local authorities feel uncomfortable. István, the local policeman accompanies him everywhere he goes. While looking for his village, Péter meets the local petty monarch, who performs a "scientific experiment" on him. Péter meets Irma whom he finds happiness with for a short period of time.


You live in Transsylvania and work as a theatre director. What brought you to filmmaking?

As a college student I was very interested in film, I dealt with it a lot. To be honest, filmmaking was one of my biggest loves. I even made two short films, one portrait and one documentary as well as a feature for television in 1982 but the latter one was banned. I realised that none of the honest screenplays would break through the censors in the 80s in Romania. Film art was controlled even more closely than theatre on ideological ground. I gave up filmmaking and all that remained from my college experience was a kind memory of carrying a heavy wartime camera and making short films.
János Rózsa, film director and leading producer at Film Studio Objektív made me an offer for directing Chinese Defence. I was scared first since it really seemed a big challenge. I was reluctant to get back to Mr Rózsa but in the meantime I recalled the film memories of my youth. I also liked and respected László Csiki both as a writer and a human being. Mr Rózsa insisted on mine directing the film so in January, 1998 I said yes to the offer.

In Chinese Defence a POW returns and tries to find his way in that new situation. Is it still an up-to-date topic in 1998?

The film tells the story of a man who returns to Transsylvania from a 19-year-long imprisonment in Siberia. But this country is no longer the same in which he was captured long ago. He does not understand the changes that have happened in almost 20 years, he does not find his hometown. Soon he becomes uncomfortable for the ruling power. Although the story happens in Transsylvania in the 60s it does not belong only to that period and place. It also says that even when we think that people cannot be skinned any better there is still something to hold onto: their own identity. It is also about the vulnerability and defencelessness of human being, which - in my opinion - is timeless. In addition there are those mechanisms that write our history in mysterious ways. There are a lot of comical and grotesque elements in the film that tries to present that period in an ironical objective way.
I think the film presents outstanding performances by an international cast, beautiful locations and grotesque situations. I hope that every audience will find something to like in it.

The script is based on a novel by László Csiki. Did you hold onto the original literary piece or did you rewrite it?

I respect the literary work of László Csiki a lot. His novel entitled Chinese Defence is a brilliant idea for a movie as well. But there is a big difference between literature and film: the object of film is defined while that of literature is not. That is why making a film based on a literary piece is so delicate a task. I tried to be accurate to the spirit and not the actual words of the novel. I rewrote some scenes and added some, sometimes I even improvised. The preparation period was pretty short. I was lucky that I knew and had memories of all the places the book mentioned.

You work with such well-known artists such as Iván Dengyel or Maia Morgenstern who is best known for the Hungarian audience from Witman Boys by János Szász. Is there a difference between instructing people on stage and on film?

Let me add some names to the list: Emil Győry, the central figure of the film, Lajos Kovács, Piroska Molnár, Zoltán Bezerédi in the Hungarian cast, István Bicskei who now lives in New Orleans, Victor Rebengiuc from the Romanian cast - he has so far played more than hundred films - Cannes-winner The Forrest of Hanged by Ciule among them. Then there is Frenchman Jean-Pierre Becker or Mihai Constantin and several actors from the company in Cluj-Napoca, too. I think one of the best parts of this movie is acting. I was lucky because I had had the chance to work with almost 80 percent of the cast many times before on various stages in Europe. But of course I had to face sometimes that not everything I thought of in the morning would work on celluloid. After all that was the first try by a theatre director to make a feature film. Tibor Máthé, director of photography was a enormous help in the process.

What reactions do you expect in Hungary?

As far as I am concerned the biggest problem only exists up to the moment people enter the cinema.
In a world, where American movies and junk media rule, art films and Eastern-European filmmaking have less chance. But I hope that the human content of Chinese Defence is able to touch more people than only the Transsylvanian audience.

What are your plans for the future in film and also in theatre?

My plans for theatre are of course bigger but at the moment I also have plans for making films as well.
Starting 1st of March this year I am to lead a director class at Academy for Theatre Art in Barcelona and I am also scheduled to direct two performances at a festival there: a piece by Moliére and All that fall by Beckett, both with Catalan actors. I will direct Airwalker by Ionesco in Dublin this coming fall, and Tartuffe in Paris next Spring. I would like to bring on stage Buffo Mysterium by Maiakovsky at home in Cluj-Napoca by fall of 2000 when the completing of the new studio of the 208-year-old Hungarian Theatre is due. László Márton has invited me to Theatre Víg in Budapest in order to continue the work we started with presenting Tango. As far as the film is concerned: I have two offers for 2000 and 2001. The first is an American movie the other is a Hungarian one . That's is all I can say this time.

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