The film is shown within the framework of the European Movie Stars' Master Classes
Hungary, 2004 Runtime: 130 min
Director: Benedek Fliegauf
Cast: Felícián Keresztes, Barbara Thurzó, Lajos Szakács, Anikó Szigeti, Edina Balogh, Dr. Dusán Vitanovics, Katalin Mészáros, István Lénárt, Elíz Bicskei
The film illustrates one day in the life of a drug-dealer. Extreme dramatic events and episodes follow one after the other, all connected by the protagonist of the film, the Dealer.
The protagonist moves about in various stratas of society, yet the film is not primarily about the drug scene. Instead, it explores a personal tragedy, through which it examines the primeval questions of life. To what extent can people influence their own fate? When do people make the wrong decisions, which of these decisions can lead to tragedies?
In the separate episodes — which are like the Stations on the Road to Calvery — the audience is able to get an inside view into the life of people living in critical situations. In these situations drugs are often the only alternative.
The world of drugs is a kind of “illegal pharmacy”, in which dealers work as the"pharmacists". Obviously drugs — along with suicide, alcoholism and crime — are the wrong choice, but the point is that it is always a reaction to a given situation that is unbearable in a normal state of mind. Whether these final conditions can be traced back to social injustice or lies determining a person's life is of secondary importance from the film's point of view, since “Dealer” shows the victims.
At times the film is shocking but this is not intended as an end in itself. These shocking events come together with the theme and with our conviction that it would be unethical to create illusions about the drug problem.