Hungarian film director Ferenc Kosa (Attila Kovacs/AP)
Ferenc Kosa, winner of the best director award at the 1967 Cannes film festival, has died aged 81.
Kosa, who died on Wednesday, was recognised for Ten Thousand Days, about the travails of a Hungarian peasant family from the 1930s onward.
The film was banned for a few years by officials in communist Hungary because of its references to the 1956 anti-Soviet revolution.
A view of Cannes (Fiona Hanson/PA)
Kosa co-wrote many of his scripts with poet and author Sandor Csoori and often worked with cinematographer Sandor Sara.
Among the trio’s works are Ten Thousand Days, Judgment (1970) and Snowfall (1974).
Upon Hungary’s return to democracy in 1990, Kosa, born November 21 1937, was a founder of the Socialist Party and a parliamentary politician from 1990 to 2006.
His death was announced by the Hungarian Academy of Arts.
