István Jávor, Laló (2009)
From a Certain Distance. Pt. 1.
In connection with the exhibition The Tactless Photojournalist. The Archive of Lajos Erdélyi from the Ceaușescu Era, on view until October 26, the Archivum is organizing a series of accompanying programs. Between September 11 and October 26, 2025, together with writers, filmmakers, and photo historians, we will evoke the worlds that appear in the photographs—or what they conceal. Our guests will include Zsolt Láng, Andrea Tompa, Gábor Vida, Kinga Júlia Király, Klára Szarka, and Lenke Szilágyi.
The first event of the eight-part series From a Certain Distance will feature a screening of István Jávor’s documentary film Laló, followed by a discussion with the director and historian-archivist Zsuzsanna Toronyi.
Laló (directed by István Jávor)
Documentary, 2009, Hungarian language, 53 minutes
The protagonist of the film is the photographer Lajos Erdélyi—known to everyone simply as Laló—who was born in Târgu Mureș in 1929. He lived as a triple minority (in Romania he was Hungarian, to the Hungarians he was Jewish, and to the Communists he was bourgeois—thus class alien) and under four dictatorships. A keen observer and a brilliant storyteller, his accounts bring to life a vanished world: the religiously, ethnically, and culturally diverse Transylvania.
The film, which traces the chronology of events, presents Laló’s childhood up until the age of sixteen, when he returned from the concentration camp. Composed of interviews, family photographs, and archival footage, the documentary depicts an individual fate as a collective one, unfolding the tragic destiny of Transylvanian Hungarian Jewry through family stories.
Following the screening, our guests will be the film’s director, István Jávor, and historian Zsuzsanna Toronyi, Director of the Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives. The discussion will be moderated by Zsuzsa Zádori, one of the exhibition’s curators and Senior Archivist of the Archivum.
Participation in the program is free of charge, but registration is required.
Registration link for September 11, 2025: https://forms.office.com/e/sLLMbsBDe1
Doors open: 5:30 p.m., seating on a first-come, first-served basis.
The program is in Hungarian.