Dóra Elek

director, artistic director: founded Baltazar Theatre in 1998

“Art starts where it can present a solution to our doubts and offer an answer to our questions. Raising an issue is insufficient. Viewers deserve more: to be reborn during a catharsis,” professes Dóra Elek, head of the Baltazár Theatre Company. In her own opinion, her greatest achievement is to have placed intellectually challenged people in a position to make their own decisions, as opposed to their parents or society making decisions about their lives. “22 years ago I asked them who wanted to be an actor, who wanted to choose the theatre as their profession. Those who said yes have remained members of the Baltazar Theatre ever since. For the first time in their lives they took control of their own future.”

According to Dóra’s philosophy of life, humans are not the pinnacle of existence, but a part of the world made up of plants and animals. “Nature and animals are members of my family,” she says.

She does yoga, and goes running and cycling on a daily basis. It’s important to her to travel a lot and get to know as much of the world that surrounds her as possible, since she believes that this is how you come closer to yourself.

Awards: Best Documentary Film Director – Jaipur International Film Festival (2018), Knight’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit (2012), Pannon Award for Role Models (2007), Vámos László Award (2006), Gundel Award (2005), Cosmopolitan Award (2003)