Recipes for Life follows young filmmaker Péter as he explores identity, friendship, and love through the story of József, a Hungarian refugee in Copenhagen. Péter, navigating a breakup and his return to Budapest, seeks cooking lessons from József, who once cooked for freedom fighters during the 1956 revolution. Their lessons evolve into deeper reflections on love, loss, and life's fragility. Each chapter is tied to a gastronomic term, paralleling Budapest and Copenhagen. As József cares for his ailing ex-wife, Péter faces his own crossroads. Their unlikely friendship reveals that learning to cook is also learning to live.
recipesforlife
Planned Release Date: 2025 Q4
Country: Hungary
Length: 25’
Director: Péter Becz
Producer: Julianna Ugrin, Éclipse Film
CONTACT
[email protected]
[email protected]
+36202605006
STILLS
JÓZSEF’S GULYÁS RECIPE
as told by him
INGREDIENTS:
600 g beef shank (or pork)
300 g red onion
2 large carrots
1 large parsley root (white carrot)
1 small celery root
400 g potatoes (peeled)
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
0.5 tablespoon hot paprika
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 small tomato
1 paprika / or 1 Hungarian sweet pepper (TV paprika)
3 cloves garlic
0.5 bunch parsley
5 celery leaves
2.5 liters water
oil/lard
Clean the onions and garlic
Fry them on the oil/lard - “not too much” “old times they used lard”
Clean the meat
Get off heat, add paprika “paprika can get sour on heat”
Back on heat add the meat
Salt
Some meat concentrate / beef concentrate for flavour
Add a can of tomato, with peeled tomatoes
Add water
Cook for 1,5 h
Meanwhile clean all the vegetables
Add spices, salt
“Taste the meat how soft it is”
Add spices
Cook until you like it
———————————————————————————————————
