Filmmakers

István Szabó - Director
Oscar-winner István Szabó was born in Budapest in 1938. In 1961 he graduated as a director from the Academy of the Art of Theatre and Film. His graduation project "Concert" was shown all round the world. In 1964, as a member of the newly founded Béla Balàzs Studios, the 26-year-old directed his first feature film "The Age of Daydream", which made him an icon amongst the new generation of 1960's Hungarian filmmakers. As guest lecturer, István Szabó has taught at countless film schools around the globe (London, Berlin and Vienna to name but a few). István Szabó was nominated three times for an Oscar – ‘Confidence’, ‘Colonel Redl’ and ‘Hanussen’, and in 1981 he won an Oscar for ‘Mephisto’

Ronald Harwood CBE - Writer
Ronald Harwood was born on November 9th 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa. He was educated in South Africa and Great Britain. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. He then became an actor in 1953 and began working as a writer in 1960. Aside from his numerous plays Ronald also wrote many novels, stories and essays including; ‘Caesar & Augusta’, ‘Adventures In The Film Trade’, ‘Articles of Faith’ and ‘The Genoa Ferry’ His film work includes; ‘One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich’, ‘The Browning Version’, ‘The Dresser’ (nominated for five Oscars, including best screenplay) and most recently he received an Oscar for ‘The Pianist’.

Sir Jeremy Isaacs - Executive Producer
Born in Glasgow in 1932, Sir Jeremy Isaacs studied in Glasgow and Oxford. In 1964 Sir Jeremy Isaacs produced the complex 26-part documentary ‘The World at War’. He then went on to make a 13-part series – ‘Ireland, A Television History’ - for the BBC. He also worked as Director of Programming at Thames Television and headed up Channel 4 in its fledgling days. In 1988, following thirty years in television, Sir Jeremy Isaacs became the General Director at London's Royal Opera House. Under his leadership, the opera house flourished, enjoying huge artistic success. His return to television came about when, in 1995, Ted Turner asked him to make the critically acclaimed documentary series, ‘The Cold War’.

Yves Pasquier - Producer
Yves Pasquier (50) began his career in film and television some 25 years ago. He started off as a correspondent for the universally known French film magazine 'Le Film Français', and subsequently went on to work on screenplays.

In 1976, he became part of the Munich-based Kirch Group, where he worked on international productions and co-productions such as Thomas Mann's "Magic Mountain", Stefan Zweig's "Ungeduld des Herzens", and Carlos Saura's global success "Carmen". In 1984 Yves Pasquier left Munich to set up GRANDPLAY in London. During this time he was responsible for the series "Hemingway" with Stacey Keach, and "Beate Klarsfeld" with Farah Fawcett.On his return to France in the late eighties, Yves Pasquier joined the production company REVCOM-ARIANE which, amongst other major success stories, produced the highly acclaimed "Cinema Paradiso". He later went on to work as an independent producer, responsible for mini series such as "The Free French Men", directed by Jim Goddard. He also co-produced "The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez", directed by Peter Sellars and most recently Melvin van Peebles' "La bonne à tout faire".

Yves Pasquier spent three years developing and preparing ‘Taking Sides'.

Rainer Mockert - Executive Producer
Rainer Mockert began his career at the Kirch Group, where he served as Executive Producer for many of their film and TV productions. He later worked for Jugend Film and Multimedia as Executive Producer and in 1998 founded the MBP Group, which has produced 13 feature films and 7 TV series, including the award-winning LANTANA, Istvan Szabo's TAKING SIDES, Fred Schepisi's LAST ORDERS, the animated feature A CHRISTMAS CAROL, the Spike Milligan classic PUCKOON, as well as an IMAX film, HORSES.

Lajos Koltai - Director of Photography
Lajos Koltai, born in Budapest in 1946, is one of the most well known cinematographers’ worldwide. His artistry is held in high esteem both in Europe and America. He has worked with such greats as Jodie Foster, Luis Mandoki and Andrei Konchalovsky. His works include, among others, the films "Out to Sea" (1997, dir: Martha Coolidge), "Mother" (1996, dir: Albert Brooks), "Home for the Holidays" (1995, dir: Jodie Foster), "Just Cause" (1995, dir: Arne Glimcher), "When a Man Loves a Women" (1993, dir: Luis Mandoki), "Born Yesterday" (1993, dir: Luis Mandoki), "Wrestling Ernest Hemingway" (1993, dir: Randa Haines), "White Palace" (1990, dir:
Luis Mandoki).

Ken Adam - Production Design
Born in Berlin in 1921, Oscar winner Ken Adam is one of the most renowned production designers in the world. His work includes 84 feature films. He was first nominated for an Oscar for the film "Around the World in Eighty Days" (1956). Five further nominations were to follow. Ken Adam was awarded Oscars for ‘Barry Lyndon’ (1975) and "’he Madness of King George’ (1995). He has been nominated for the BAFTA Film Award nine times. Again he was awarded for "Best British Art Direction" on "Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1963) and "The Ipcress File" (1965).

Györgyi Szakács – Costume Design
Györgyi Szakács has been a costume designer since 1975 and has designed costumes for about 500 theatre performances, films and television productions. As a member of several theatres in Hungary she made the costumes for almost all the Shakespeare dramas. She also is a member of the Katona Jósef company since its foundation and made the costumes design for almost all productions by Gábor Zsámbéki and Tamás Ascher, like ‘Coriolanus’, ‘Three Sisters’, ‘The Government’, ‘Inspector’, ‘Catullus’, ‘Misanthrope’, ‘Platonov’, ‘Hamlet’, ‘Katharina Blum’, ‘The Miser’, ‘Presidents’, ‘The Broken Jug’, and ‘ART’.

Full crew credits