Tibor (László Gálffi) is a frustrated middle-aged writer who leaves his actress wife (Éva Kerekes) for 19 year-old androgynous male prostitute Zsolt (Dávid Szabó). They meet one evening in a large library in Budapest, and Zsolt says he is Ukrainian and his parents died at Chernobyl. Inspiration finally comes to the older writer, but so do danger and despair as the boy skillfully insinuates his way into the writer's home and heart. His new life begins to unravel in sad and unexpected ways in this unusual character study. The relationship leaves him feeling heady with lust and his creativity re-awakens, but threatens to destroy his life.
Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice" is the prototype for this affair between Tibor and the beautiful boy from another world who becomes a muse for the artist. Tastes in music, literature, and food remind us that age is not the only thing that separates the two lovers. Zsolt, it turns out, is also interested in girls, and will jump anything that moves: teenagers, johns, and even Tibor's wife. His friends are petty criminals, thieves, and blackmailers. Yet he is also seductive and very good at telling lies to the writer, who is inspired to restart his career. The author continues to pursue the relationship even after Zsolt becomes contemptuous of their affair. Tibor eventually confronts the reality of his own failed marriage and of Zsolt's criminality and unavailability.
Filmed in the streets of Budapest, "Férfiakt" is about the fate of two men in worlds and ages that separates them. It's a dark, sexy, and provocative drama, a curiosity with a somewhat incoherent scenario. There is some "nudity", consisting of a few bare torsos and buttocks. The soundtrack is classical music (Schubert, Malher, Verdi) embellished with rock. Károly Esztergályos wrote the screenplay and directed. In Hungarian with English subtitles. The English title is "Men in the Nude".
