In the autumn of 1985 my first feature film was invited to enter the competition of the Montreal Festival. This was my first overseas trip. What's more, it was the first journey during which I lost my suitcase.

I wandered forlornly around the airport with my poor knowledge of English. I had to fill in some sort of form. Then I was advised to wait for the next flight from Frankfurt in case my suitcase was on that. I remember sitting amid the din of the airport while my colleagues left for the city. I wasn't the slightest bit interested in my suitcase. Eventually it would arrive. Or not. There was only one important thing. I was in Montreal. And so was my film. Nothing else mattered.

As I mentioned, it was 1985. My passport was blue. It had hardly any entries. My suitcase didn't arrive till the following day when it was brought to the Hotel M�ridien where we were staying. It was a Wednesday in a warm, dazzling September. My film was screened in the evening. The vast cinema faced the hotel. Long, neverending queues meandered outside the box-office.

The day before my trip I had received a warning: I was asked to take care of what I might say abroad. At the time the world was still divided into two camps, in one of which socialism was being built. In 1985 it seemed this would last forever�

There were at least two thousand viewers in the screening room. I stood by one of the rear doors, mostly with my eyes shut, trying to get tuned to the audience. At the end of the film there was loud applause, and complete strangers started shaking my hand. At the exit a bald man and his exceedingly thin wife swooped down on me. It is because of them that I'm relating this story.

Incidentally, the film is about an unusual duel between two men. A young acrobat tries to get the secret of a world-famous act from an old illusionist. The number itself is shown only at the end of the film: a man frozen into a block of ice extricates himself from this strange prison in the middle of the circus ring, taking the spectators' excitement to the extreme. Now, this bald man in the autumn of 1985 in Montreal said that story had stirred him profoundly and asked me to accompany him and his wife to a restaurant to tell them about the creation of the film from the moment the idea was born to its realisation. Needless to say: I drank in his words. We stayed together till dawn. The bald man turned out to be the reporter of a radio station in Montreal. Soon after we got to the restaurant he turned on his tape recorder to be able to recall this evening on other occasions too.

My first trip to Montreal was a victory as far as I was concerned. My film, The Philadelphia Attraction, won the jury's special award a week later.

I came home. In a month's time I was summoned to the police station. An extremely polite gentleman asked me questions about my trip to Montreal. About what I had said abroad, on the far side of the ocean. In answer to my evasive reply the man turned on a tape recorder. It was excerpts from a radio interview. I was talking and in the background you could detect the setting of a restaurant in Montreal. The monologue contained many complaints. About how long I had to wait to make this film. How little money I received. And the like. The extremely polite gentleman reminded me that I had been warned to pay attention to what I said abroad. What's more this had been broadcast transmitted through the ether. I tried to relate the circumstances, the bald man and his skinny wife. Their enthusiasm. The polite gentleman took notes, nodded and listened.

Back then in 1985 Gorbachev's name was still unknown to us. As I said, It seemed the order of the world was set in concrete until the end of time.

Otherwise, nothing happened. The incident had no consequences. I was lucky that the authorities were content with this gentle warning, implying they knew everything about me and kept an eye on me everywhere - I don't know. Nonetheless, for me the sunny September in Montreal, the soaring sensation of triumph, will always be linked to the dark weeks of anxiety back here in Budapest.

P�ter G�rdos

Invit� du festival en / Festival guest in: 1985, 1987, 1989

Films pr�sent�s / Films presented:

1985

• URAMISTEN / L'ATTRACTION DE PHILADELPHIE / THE PHILADELPHIA ATTRACTION
• Comp�tition officielle / Official Competition
• Prix sp�cial du jury / Special jury award

1987

• SZAMARKOHOGES / COQUELUCHE / WHOOPING COUGH
• Comp�tition officielle / Official competition
• Prix de la critique internationale (FIPRESCI)

1989

• A HECC / D�RAPAGE / JUST FOR KICKS
• Comp�tition officielle / Official competition