Involved in the communist party, he took part in the agricultural reform and he depicted his experience in Sparkling Winds (Fényes szelek, 1968). Before his feature debut, he made dozens of documentaries. He earned international fame with The Round-Up (Szegénylegények, 1965) and The Red and the White (Csillagosok, katonák, 1967) where he developed the original poetics of long shots, sophisticated motion of actors and expressive cinematography (in those times, his closest collaborator was the cinematographer Tamás Somló). The themes he explored included a philosophical analysis of history, displaying a weak human suffering humiliation from the anonymous system. He guarded his aesthetical originality also in his later films, many of which were made in Italy: The Pacifist (La pacifista, 1970), La tecnica e il rito (Technique and rite 1971). He was very successful both with films exploring contemporary issues and history: depictions of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in Silence and Cry (Csend és kiáltás, 1968) and Agnus dei (Égi bárány, 1970). Metaphors of his subsequent films became more and more allegorical, like folk stories, myths and para-theatrical performance. He is still active; lately, critics liked his Season of Monsters (Szörnyek évadja, 1986), Anyád! A szúnyogok (Damn You! The Mosquitoes (2000), Last Supper at the Arabian Gray Horse (Utolsó vacsora az Arabs Szürkénél, 2001), Wake Up, Mate, Don't You Sleep (Kelj fel, komám, ne aludjál, 2003). In 1979 he obtained the life's work award at the festival in Cannes, and a similar prize in Venice in 1987. He is still regarded as one of the most original filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s; he has also influenced such directors as Theo Angelopoulos and Béla Tarr.
 

Selected filmography:

1958 A harangok Rómába mentek / The Bells Have Gone to Rome

1965 Így jöttem / My Way Home

1966 Szegénylegények / The Round-Up

1966 Közelröl: a vér / Close Up: The Blood

1967 Csillagosok, katonák / The Red and the White

1967 Csend és kiáltás / Silence and Cry

1969 Fényes szelek / Sparkling Winds

1969 Sirokkó / Winter Wind

1970 Égi bárány / Agnus dei

1970 La pacifista / The Pacifist

1972 Még kér a nép / Red Psalm

1974 Szerelmem, Elektra / Electra, My Love

1974 Roma rivuole Cesare / Rome Wants Another Caesar

1976 Vizi privati, pubbliche virtù / Vices and Pleasures

1979 Magyar rapszódia / Hungarian Rhapsody

1981 A zsarnok szíve, avagy Boccaccio Magyarországon / The Tyrant’s Heart

1985 L’aube / Dawn

1987 Szörnyek évadja / Season of Monsters

1988 Jézus Krisztus horoszkópja / Jesus Christ’s Horoscope

1991 Isten hátrafelé megy / God Walks Backwards

1992 Kék Duna keringö / Blue Danube Waltz

1996 Szeressük egymást, gyerekek!

1999 Nekem lámpást adott kezembe az Úr, Pesten / Lord’s Lantern in Budapest

2001 Utolsó vacsora az Arabs Szürkénél / Last Supper at the Arabian Gray Horse

2002 Kelj fel, komám, ne aludjál / Wake Up, Mate, Don’t You Sleep

2004 A mohácsi vész

2006 Ede megevé ebédem

2009 Oda az igazság