Szaffi is a full-length animated feature based on Mór Jókai’s short books The Gypsy Baron (A cigánybáró) and Szaffi. It has adventure, and treasure, and love, and a little black cat, and a war, and picturesque villains - a governor with a pressure release valve in his skull and a fat pig-loving baron, and of course, the good gypsies.
Direction
Attila Dargay's bonkers character designs — that governor's skull valve lives rent-free.
Practical Effects
Hand-drawn animation with genuine texture, pre-digital soul intact.
Writing
Jókai's source material filtered through pure cartoon anarchy.
Director
Attila Dargay
András Kern
Jónás Botsinkay (voice)
Judit Pogány
Szaffi (voice)
Hilda Gobbi
Old Witch (voice)
György Bárdy
Feuerstein lovag (voice)
Gábor Maros
Puzzola (voice)
Ferenc Zenthe
Gáspár Botsinkay (voice)
Judit Hernádi
Arzéna (voice)
László Csákányi
Loncsár (voice)
János Gálvölgyi
Menyus / Gazsi bácsi / Strázsa / Papagáj (voice)
Sándor Suka
Prince Eugene of Savoy (voice)
András Márton
Adjutáns (voice)
Gellért Raksányi
Strázsamester (voice)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Adapting Jókai's 19th-century romantic nationalism into communist-era animation required careful navigation — the gypsy characters became 'noble outcasts' rather than ethnic stereotypes, a surprisingly progressive choice for 1985 Hungary.
Director Attila Dargay also made Hungary's beloved Vuk the Fox Cub — Szaffi was his attempt at 'something for adults too,' hence the skull valve and pig obsession.
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