I was very sorry to hear about the death of Hungarian director István Gaál (1933-2007), because I’d only just discovered his work via Roots (Gyökerek), a marvellous three-part television documentary about the composer Béla Bartók, made in 2002 – which has just jumped to the top of my “to review” list.
The Falcons (Magasiskola, 1970) is widely regarded as his best film, but I don’t honestly recall ever getting a chance to see it. But hopefully the links below will offer more comprehensive and reliable information than I can muster.
Links
- Obituary by John Nadler in Variety (2 October 2007)
- Personal tribute from a former student blogging as The Spaniard in the Works
- Biography by Václav Merhaut from Filmreference.com
- Online exhibition of Gaál’s photographs, courtesy of the (Origo) Galéria – which also supplies this biography.
- This entry for The Falcons on Port.hu is in Hungarian, but has a small colour stills gallery.