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Original name: Gettó Balboa
English Name: Ghetto Balboa
Year: 2018
Run Time: 90 Mins
Language: Hungarian
Type (Colour/ Black & White): Black and White
Country: Hungary
Director: Árpád Bogdán
Producer: Ildikó Kosztolni, László Józsa,
Attila Ponczók, Gábor Ferenczy
Cast: Krisztina Belinszky, Zoltán KissJános,
Mihály Sipos, Zoltán Szabó, János Vona
Screenplay: Árpád Bogdán
Cinematographer: Róbert Bordás
Editor: Péter Politzer, Csaba Hernáth
Sound Designer: Tamas Kreiner
Music Composer: Mihály Víg
Production Company: Iamnewhere, Speakeasy Project
World Sales: Speakeasy Project
World Sales Phone: +36209208831
World Sales Email: jl@speakeasyproject.com
Berlin Roma FF 2018
Sarajevo FF 2018
Belgrade Documentary and Short FF 2019
Beijing IFF 2019
2018 Ghetto Balboa
2018 Genesis
2017 - ULTRA (documentary)
2007 Happy New Life
Árpád Bogdán (born in 1976) lived in a children’s home from the age of 4. He started working as an actor and stage director in various theatres during his college years. He has organized creative forums for disadvantaged children using various aspects of theatre, film and literature. His directorial debut, Happy New Life (2007) was internationally acclaimed at various festivals. His second feature length fiction film - Genesis - has just been finished and will be released in cinemas in 2018. Ghetto Balboa is Bogdán’s first feature length documentary. Previous works: Beat and Notion (short, 2003), Dusk (short, 2005), Roma Astronaut Project (public information film, 2006), Denied (documentary, 2008), Darkness on the Edge of Town – Roma Serial Murders (short, 2009). Festival selections: Budapest Hungarian Film Week (competition, 2007), Berlin International Film Festival – Panorama (international premiere, 2007), Karlovy Vary International Film Festival – East of the West (competition, 2007), Ghent Flanders International Film Festival (competition, 2007), Lecce Festival of European Films (competition, 2007).
The documentary follows a boxing coach and his trainee from the very beginning to the first successes. Both characters are of Roma origins from the infamous Ghetto in the middle of Budapest. Misi Sipos (60), an ex-member of the 8th district mafia, while recovering in a prison hospital after a shootout with a rival gang, turned to God and left behind his criminal past. As his personal “mission” he started a local community boxing club aimed at young children from troubled families, to keep them away from crime and show them an alternative for their future. Zoli Szabó (21) is one of these kids. He has been boxing in the amateur league under Misi’s guidance for 6 years. Zoli lives in a one-bedroom apartment with his dad, stepmother, half-sisterand his fiancée, who is already pregnant. Despite his young age he has to face up to the responsibility of providing for his new family. He has a tough decision to make, as he either becomes a professional boxer, which comes with a lot of sacrifices or he follows in the footsteps of his mobster father.The film is about the path they take together. Misi as a father figure does everything in his mightto spare Zoli from the mistakes he had made in his past. The documentary follows them throughthis journey, day by day in real life situations, avoiding talking heads and other formative elements of traditional factual movies.
