Benedek ‘Bence’ Fliegauf was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1974. Rather than attend film school he started working as an assistant director for television. From there he moved into directing, screenwriting, set design and sound engineering, and went on to direct short movies, feature movies and documentaries.

Not only does he usually writes the scripts for his own movies, he also composed the music for his feature films Dealer (2004) and Lily Lane (2016). His first feature film Forest won the Wolfgang Staudte Prize and Gene Moskowitz Critics Prize at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival. His next feature Dealer won the Berliner Zeitung Audience Award at the 2004 Berlin Film Festival, and several Best Director prizes. Fliegauf’s 2007 feature Milky Way won Locarno’s Golden Leopard in the Filmmakers of the Present section. His fourth feature Womb premiered at the 2010 Locarno Film Festival.

The movie that followed in 2012, Just the Wind, was based on an actual series of racist attacks against Romani people between 2008 and 2009, in which six people died. The perpetrators were simple everyday people, and Fliegauf managed to conduct a few in-depth interviews with the convicted murderers. In the director’s statement he says, ‘It was more important to him to stay with the potential victims. It is a great challenge to get the audience to feel even a little bit of what the victims experience while they are being hunted. The heroes of his film are simple Romani people.’ In 2012 he won the Jury Grand Prix – Silver Bear at the 62nd Berlin Film Festival.

References

http://www.the-match-factory.com/films/items/just-the-wind.html
https://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/2012/02_programm_2012/02_Filmdatenblatt_2012_20123683.php#tab=filmStills
Just the Wind Press Kit: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1212903/

Filmography

2003 Forest (Rengeteg)
- Berlin International Film Festival, Wolfgang Staudte Award Best First Film (2003)
- Hungarian Film Week, »Gene Moskowitz« Critics Award, Sándor Simó Memorial Award (2003)
2004 Dealer
- Athens International Film Festival, Golden Athena (2004)
- Berlin International Film Festival, Reader Jury of the »Berliner Zeitung« (2004)
- Hungarian Film Critics Awards, László B. Nagy Award (2005)
- Hungarian Film Week, Best Director (2004)
- Mar del Plata Film Festival, Best Director, Special Mention, FIPRESCI Prize, ACCA Jury Prize (2004)
- Wiesbaden goEast, Best Director (2004)
2007 Milky Way (Tejút)
- Hungarian Film Week, Special Prize (2008)
- Locarno International Film Festival, Golden Leopard – Filmmakers of the Present (2007)
2010 Womb (Méh)
- Locarno International Film Festival, Junior Jury Award – »Environment Is Quality of Life« Prize (2010)
2012 Just the wind (Csak a szél)
- Berlin International Film Festival, Silver Berlin Bear, Jury Grand Prix (2012)
- Berlin International Film Festival, Peace Film Award (2012)
- Berlin International Film Festival, Amnesty International Film Prize (2012)
- Istanbul International Film Festival, FACE Award (2012)
2016 Lily Lane (Liliom ösvényei)
- Lecce Festival of European Cinema, Golden Olive Tree (2016)
- Minsk International Film Festival, Grand Prix Golden Listapad