‘Semmelweis’ director Lajos Koltai on ‘passion, insight’ behind Hungary’s 2025 Oscars entry for Best International Feature: ‘People deeply love it’
Following a recent Los Angeles screening for “Semmelweis,” Hungary’s 2025 Oscars entry for Best International Feature, director Lajos Koltai was greeted by a standing ovation before sitting down for a Q & A hosted by Gold Derby. The Oscar-nominated cinematographer (“Malena”) discussed why he decided to direct his third feature film, which has gone on to become one of Hungary’s biggest hits of the year.
“It was a lucky thing,” he said of the film’s success. “People went to see it and we had record numbers in Hungary. Young people went to see it. Teenagers! They talk to each other and say, ‘I have to see it again tomorrow. I want to learn about it. I want to understand. So they come back the next day and bring their friends. People deeply love it, which is a really good thing.”
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“Semmelweis” stars Miklós H. Vecsei as Dr. Semmelweis Ignác in 1847. When a mysterious epidemic is raging in a maternity clinic in Vienna, Semmelweis tries to defeat puerperal fever by going against all traditional theories, leading to scientific discoveries that later earned him the nickname “Savior of Mothers.”
Koltai was impressed by Balázs Maruszki‘s screenplay, noting, “It had very strong dialogue, which is very rare in Hungarian scripts. Everyone in this world is fighting for something that is far away from them, but [Semmelweis] knows his own path. He sees the light at the end of the road. He knows it’s there, but you have to get there. You have to solve the problem. It’s a good example to show people that if you have enough passion, enough insight, and you really believe something, you will find it. That’s why I did this movie.”
The director said the most difficult part of his job was casting the lead. Photos of the real Semmelweis made him appear “unsympathetic” and older than the time the story takes place, when he’s just 29 years old. While conducting his search, Koltai was contacted by his friend, director István Szabó, with whom he collaborated on the Oscar-winning film “Mephisto.”
“This guy is really interesting. You should see him,” Szabó told Koltai. When Koltai first laid eyes on the young actor, Miklós H. Vecsei, he thought, “He has curly blond hair! What can I do with this? So he came into my office and we started talking. My system is, I always talk and tell stories about my life. I watch the face and how he reacts to me. It was interesting to see how he looked at me.” Eventually, Koltai decided he wanted a young, “strong-looking guy” and Vescei had “a strong ray of light, coming from his body and soul. I needed that kind of charismatic person, and he’s very charismatic.”
To shoot the film, Koltai quickly learned the city of Vienna would be problematic. “There was no street in Vienna you could shoot the movie,” he explained. “Everything is just for tourists.” Eventually, Koltai decided to build everything we see in the film and shoot it in Hungary. He worked with his production designers to “find out how everything looked in the period. At that time, there was nothing in hospitals. Stethoscopes were made of wood. Water was in the backyard. It was unbelievable. There was a low number of people in the hospitals because, who can afford it? Others were born at home.”
Following the film’s successful theatrical release in Hungary, it was nominated for 16 Hungarian Motion Picture Awards. It went on to win six of those, including Best Feature Film, Best Director (Koltai), Best Supporting Actress (Blanka Mészáros), Best Supporting Actor (László Gálffi), Best Production Design (Pater Sparrow), and Best Original Score (Atti Pacsay).
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