Zoltan Szalkai

Zoltán Szalkai, a Hungarian film director, was born in 1961. He studied agriculture and geology before turning to a career in directing documentary films.

One of the best known of these is "Walk on Gulagland", made on location in Siberia. The film is centred on the many encounters he had when walking across Siberia, meeting prisoners from the forced labour camps and discussing their experiences with them. His approach is interesting in that he grew up himself in Hungary and was taught the communist version of history.

Szalkai has also worked in Vietnam and Alaska, always tracing stories of hardship and forced labour camps.

External links

* [http://www.hunfilm.com/en/med_projects.html Biography of Zoltán Szalkai from Media Works, Digital Film Academy]
* [http://www.gulag.hu/szalkai.htm Walk on Gulagland Kolyma] - Description of the documentary from Istvan Toth's pages
* [http://www.dersu.hu Zoltan Szalkai homepage]

ee also

*Gulag
*Kolyma