Istvan Szabo - Mephisto / Colonel Redl / Hanussen Limited Edition Blu-Ray

István Szabó is perhaps the best known of all Hungarian filmmakers, with hugely successful, Oscar-winning films in Hungary, Europe, and Hollywood. This box set reveals the most creative and vibrant period of Szabó's Hungarian film career, with three exceptional films made in collaboration with actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, writer Péter Dobai, and cinematographer Lajos Koltai. These films explore the conflicts between history, society, and the individual in a rich and dazzlingly bold, yet personal way.

These important and powerfully relevant films are presented in stunning 4K restorations and are being released on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

The box set contains:

Mephisto (1981)

István Szabó's Oscar-winning adaptation of Klaus Mann's novel paints a portrait of Hendrik Höfgen (Klaus Maria Brandauer), a passionate but struggling actor who, despite his political ambivalence, remains in Germany when the Nazis come to power. When he accepts a Nazi official's offer to make him a star, Höfgen finally achieves the success and admiration he has long sought—but at what price?

Överste Redl (1985)

Szabó's film is set in the years before World War I and is inspired by John Osborne's controversial 1965 play A Patriot for Me. It depicts the rise of the brilliant but unscrupulous Alfred Redl within the Austro-Hungarian military. Redl, compromised by his secret homosexuality, is manipulated into a series of treacherous betrayals and becomes a prisoner of his own deceit.

Hanussen (1988)

An Austrian soldier wounded during World War I claims to have gained the ability to foresee the future. Under the name Erik Jan Hanussen, he establishes himself as a hypnotist, astrologer, and clairvoyant in a theater in Berlin and flatters his way into the inner circle of those in power.Szabó's film vividly recreates this period and the parallels between Hanussen's rise and Hitler and the Nazi regime. Limited edition 3-disc Blu-ray Box Set.  

• All three films are presented in 4K restored versions from the Hungarian National Film Institute – Film Archive.  

• Four of István Szabó's acclaimed but rarely seen short films: Variations on a Theme (1961), You (1963), Concert (1963), and City Map (1977).

• István Szabó – The Director Responds: An interview with the award-winning filmmaker. The Memory of József Romvári: Filmmaker Sophy Romvári's tribute to her grandfather, production designer József Romvári, with narration by Szabó.

• Szabó's Central Europe: A look at Szabó's Hungarian films. Separate booklets with new texts by Hungarian film critics John Cunningham, Peter Hames, and Catherine Portuges.

• Trailers.

• New English subtitles.

• British premiere on Blu-ray.

• Region-free (A/B/C) Blu-ray.