MARTIN HERR
Martin Herr is a freelance documentary director, cinematographer and photographer based in Budapest, Hungary.
He studied critical theory and became a photographer of the leftist underground scene.
In 2020 he started working as a director, editor and cinematographer at Partizán, Hungary's most influential independent media outlet.
In 2023 he was awarded an Erasmus Mundus scholarship by the DocNomads Master’s Course in Documentary Film Directing, held between Portugal, Belgium, and Hungary.
In film, he is most interested in the fusion of the personal and the social, the imaginary and the real, the popular and the experimental.
Selected Filmography
TURTLE [2025] - 30'
state: in production | tech: digital | production: DocNomads
excerpt
Fati is the heart of Gira Ginjal - an emblematic squat established by people from former Portuguese colonies in an abandoned dock building fifteen years ago. When the community is forcibly evicted and their home demolished, Fati must find a new place to rebuild their lives while fighting to keep the community together.
OMAMA [2025] - 17'
state: upcoming | tech: b&w still images on film | production: DocNomads
music by Bese Szórád | sound mix by Aurélien Lebourg
teaser
Omama tells the story of my rural grandmother, whose main wish is not to wake up tomorrow. When I, her cinema-expatriate grandson, return hoping to reconnect with her, the film unfolds as an intimate yet quirky meditation on resilience and decay, the class gap that divides us, and the care that connects us.
CANDID CANDIDATE [2024] - 17'
state: unreleased | tech: digital | production: DocNomads
cinematography by Sébastien Willem
excerpt
2024, Budapest. Shakkour Aram, a moderately experienced activist with an immigrant background, is running his first campaign in a xenophobic environment. His goal: to talk to every voter and convince them that he is not only a true Hungarian, but also the right person to represent his infamous and goofy neighbourhood.
NOSTALGIA FOR A DISALLOWED GOAL [2024] - 9'
state: unreleased | tech: digital | production: DocNomads
co-directed with Valeriya Kim
still
Ákos, Hungary’s longest-serving ticket controller, lives a rigid life - 12-hour shifts, two beers, and TV dinners in his cramped room. His escape is the daydreams of his imaginary glory days as a socialist-era football star. There the spectre of the past looms more vivid than the mundanity of his present.
HERMIT [2022] - 16'
state: premiered in DOK Leipzig, released online | tech: digital | production: Partizán
At the age of fifty, Rudolf Tóth, a former carpenter, decided to retire and leave his family in an attempt to escape capitalism. Thirteen years have passed since then. He settled in a ghost village in the Hungarian countryside. Without any companions and many resources, he set out to create a self-sustaining model farm.