Hungarian director Gábor Reisz returns to the Venice Film Festival with "Ground Floor" (Földszint), a satirical drama premiering in the Venice Spotlight section on 10 September. The film follows Kristóf, a failed artist who, on the same day he learns he is to become a father, discovers black mould in his flat and is unexpectedly jolted out of his apathy to confront his neighbours and fix the problem, in what the director frames as a metaphor for wider Hungarian society.

Reisz, whose previous film "Explanation for Everything" won the Horizons award at Venice in 2023, said the idea grew from a producer's suggestion to set a film around a Hungarian apartment block residents' meeting, a notoriously fraught but universally relatable ritual. He and co-writer Éva Schulze developed it into a broader commentary on social apathy amid what he described as Hungary's deteriorating political atmosphere, hoping the film might, even modestly, spur people into action. The cast includes Ádám Tompa, Rodrigo Crespo, Bettina Józsa and Marcello Fonte, with Films Boutique handling international sales.