Peter Akar and Ambrus Fater
THE GREAT RESET
Ever-competitive, thirty-eight-year-old Anna seeks to outdo her mother and earn her own recognition—so when she inherits her two-star Michelin restaurant, she tears it down to the studs to build her own legacy.
SYNOPSIS
When thirty-eight-year-old Anna inherits her mother’s celebrated two-Michelin-star restaurant in Budapest, she makes a radical decision: to shut it down and rebuild it from scratch. Rejecting the rigid hierarchy of fine dining, Anna sets out to create a democratic kitchen driven by collaboration, not ego. But, as ideals clash with reality in this tense, high-stakes workspace, where food is both art and product, power games simmer beneath every decision. Marcell, the manic creative director, sees the restaurant as his stage, driven by his dreams of glory. Meanwhile, at the heart of the kitchen, gifted but socially awkward chef Ákos battles addiction and self-doubt in a world that demands performance. Soon, the restaurant becomes a battleground of competing visions and fragile alliances—until the whole system begins to crumble. Shot over four years, with unique access to this microcosm where food becomes a site of control, aspiration, and burnout, the film explores the fine dining bubble, and sheds a light on the trap of consumerism.
DIRECTOR
Peter Akar and Ambrus Fater
PRODUCERS
Rita Balogh and Barbara Frank
EDITOR
Marianna Rudas
PRODUCTION COMPANIES
Other Films
COUNTRIES
Hungary
LENGTH
80 min
Peter Akar
He graduated as a screenplay writer (SZFE Hungary) and went on to study documentary directing at the NFTS in the UK. His film Sing Your Heart Out has won the Grierson Award and the Royal Television Society’s Award. He has worked on several documentaries in the UK (Channel 4, STV, etc). Apart from documentaries he has worked on critically acclaimed fiction-TV series in Hungary both as a writer and a director. He is a teacher at ELTE University Budapest.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
While the world was unravelling—through a pandemic, wars, and shifting political landscapes—we found ourselves in a kitchen where people obsess about the precise placement of a single parsley leaf. At first, it felt absurd. But soon, we were hooked. There is something mesmerising about this contrast: the obsessive, inward focus of fine dining set against the noise and chaos of the outside world. What began as curiosity became deep engagement. With humour and empathy, we followed our often controversial characters as they tried to reshape an authoritarian system into something more democratic. Ironically, this was just as Hungary was moving in the opposite direction.
Ambrus Fater
He has been working as a professional film director for eight years. He graduated from the University of Theatre and Film Arts in the class of Bence Miklauzic and András Salamon, under the mentorship of Péter Gothár, Ildikó Enyedi, Szabolcs Hajdu and Ferenc Török. Since then he has gained extensive experience in the creation of commercials, music videos, documentaries and feature films. His graduate film “Collapsed Lung” has received both national and international recognition, winning the Grand Prix at Gdańsk’s Euroshorts Festival in 2017. Over the years the director has developed his abilities into a level of expertise that allows him to tell stories with a unique, creative, and sensitive perspective.
DIRECTORS’ STATEMENT
For us, the kitchen became a mirror of society—a microcosm in which class tensions, power plays, and personal dreams unfold with intensity and vulnerability. The tone of THE GREAT RESET resembles shows like THE WHITE LOTUSs and THE BEAR: sharp, human, and darkly funny. But above all, our focus is on the people—their struggles, their blind spots, their hopes. Politics simmers beneath the surface, but it’s never the headline. Our goal is to make a film that’s entertaining, surprising, and meaningful.
Rita Balogh
RITA BALOGH is passionate about documentaries, and works in distribution, producing, and directing. In 2016, she founded the production company OTHER FILMS to create impactful works for the international market like WHOSE DOG AM I?, which screened at the Warsaw International Film Festival and the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, among other events. Her recently co-produced series IRON CURTAIN—LIFE UNDER SOVIET OCCUPATION premiered on ARTE in 2024. Other Films focuses on international co-productions and alternative distribution, fostering social discourse around the world. A co-founder of the Budapest International Documentary Festival, Balogh also launched a rural open-air cinema.
PRODUCER’S STATEMENT
As a co-founder of the Budapest International Documentary Festival, I have observed the hunger of audiences for emotionally resonant and genuinely entertaining real-life stories. THE GREAT RESET is exactly that: a gripping, character-driven film with a gourmet edge, looking behind the scenes of a legendary two-Michelin-star kitchen in Budapest. While much of the documentary landscape focuses on large-scale social or political issues, this film draws its power from the intimate and the personal, exploring universal human tensions like ego, ambition, and the fight for recognition. Its emotional accessibility and entertaining tone make it an attractive gateway for audiences to engage deeply with the documentary form. Thanks to the directors’ sharp eye and cinematic storytelling, rooted in their background in fiction and scriptwriting, the film invites viewers not just to observe but also to feel. Characters are built-up with nuance and complexity—you may judge them in one scene and root for them in the next. This emotional rollercoaster is part of what makes THE GREAT RESET compelling.
We’re proud to be crafting a film that not only takes audiences backstage into a rare world but also holds up a mirror to the everyday tensions between power and vulnerability, success and its price, idealism and compromise.
Production company profile
Other FIlms is a young and dynamic Hungarian production company founded by producer Rita Balogh and writer-director Péter Akar. Focused on creative, author-driven documentaries with international appeal, the company believes in the power of films to tell stories as well as to spark conversations and challenge audiences.
Their feature WHOSE DOG AM I? had its premiere in competition at the Warsaw International Film Festival in 2022 and went on to screen at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, goEast, and the MEDIAWAVE International Film and Music Gathering, where it won the award for Best Director. Another of the company’s landmark productions, the three-part documentary series IRON CURTAIN—LIFE UNDER SOVIET OCCUPATION, is a French-Hungarian co-production supported by ARTE France.
Current projects include CARETAKERS, an observational documentary supported by the LEF Foundation and filmed in the United States and Germany, and a Romanian-Hungarian feature-length documentary directed by renowned filmmaker Alexandru Solomon, continuing the company’s commitment to high-quality, cross-border storytelling. Alongside production, Other Films focuses on distribution. In 2014, the company co-founded the Budapest International Documentary Festival, now a major platform for documentaries in Hungary. In 2021, it opened an open-air cinema and cultural centre in rural Hungary, bringing socially engaged films to new audiences—always with space for dialogue, Q&As, and side programmes.
Where are we at?
PRODUCTION BUDGET
€170,000
NEEDED FOR COMPLETION
€50,000
TERRITORIES AVAILABLE
Worldwide
EXPECTED RELEASE
2026
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