Zoltan Szalkai

Who is 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 are On foot through gulag land, a 6-part film series, made on location in Russia. The film is centred on the many encounters he had when walking across Russia, meeting people 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 filmed in Vietnam, Indonesia and Alaska.