AFI FEST Officially Selects Torn From the Flag to Premiere November 10th in its 'Milestones' Section

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Nov. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Torn from the Flag, Klaudia Kovacs' first feature, a documentary about the fall of communism and the 1956 Hungarian revolution and freedom fight, has been selected by AFI FEST, one of the most influential film festivals in North America. It will screen in the festival's Milestones section, described by the festival as "celebrating the best of the best," along with films by Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, to honor the late cinematography legend Laszlo Kovacs, ASC, who lensed the doc with Vilmos Zsigmond protege Zoltan Honti. The film contains current and 1956 archive footage by both Mr. Kovacs and Zsigmond from and about the revolution.

Ms. Kovacs brought together 29 interviewees representing a wide range of viewpoints. Along with several Freedom Fighters -- e.g., George Lassan, founding member of the '56 Hungarian World Federation -- former political prisoners, a spy, and Hungarian government officials from 1956 and post-1956 regimes (Arpad Goncz, Janos Berecz, Gyula Horn, Imre Pozsgay), also appearing are Arpad Nagy, a former Soviet-regime Hungarian communist police (AVO) officer, now an anti-AVO activist; foreign students who witnessed the events, i.e., George Vassiliou, former President of Cyprus; Soviet military interpreter Vitali Ivanovich Fomin, stationed in Budapest during the uprising; such notable historians as Pulitzer Prize-winning Khrushchev biographer Dr. William Taubman; Eisenhower biographer Dr. Richard Filipink, Jr.; Dr. Csaba Bekes of Budapest's 1956 Institute; Harvard University historian Dr. Mark Kramer; UCLA economist/historian Dr. Ivan Berend; U.N. specialist, author and professor Dr. Andras Nagy; Dr. Gino Ragno, now a politician, who led student protests in Rome in 1956 against Soviet aggression in Hungary; and other political notables such as European Parliament member Otto von Habsburg, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, and controversial Cold War figure Henry Kissinger.

Torn from the Flag was Mr. Kovacs' last film. His stark lighting puts the interviewees' faces into partial shadow.

Torn from the Flag was shot in the U.S., Hungary, Russia and Italy with a Panavised Sony 900 HD camera. Ms. Kovacs was accepted into Panavision's Young Filmmakers' Program; thus, the camera came courtesy of major sponsor Panavision. Editing was done in Final Cut Pro. Post-production was provided, and partly sponsored, by Technicolor.

This was a nine-year project for Ms. Kovacs. She brought together the North American Hungarian community to an unprecedented degree in support of her film.

For interview opportunities or additional information contact Kinga Toth at (323) 528-8771 or ktothfilm@gmail.com.