Istvan Szabo'sRelatives will open the 37thHungarian Film Week tonight as scheduled despite the director's admission thathe was an informant for Hungary's communist-era secret police while a filmstudent in the 1950s.

Magyar Filmunio, the promotionagency of the Hungarian Motion Picture Public Foundation, would not comment onthe matter other than to say that the programme would not be changed.

On Friday, Szabo told theHungarian daily Nepszabadsagthat he had become an informant in order to save the life of a fellow studentin the aftermath of the 1956 uprising against the communist regime. Thedirector characterised his work for the secret police as "the bravest andmost fearless of my life."

It is not uncommon in Hungaryfor celebrities and other well-known persons to be labelled as collaboratorswith the former communist government. Ex-Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy and Olympic footballer DezsoNovak have also been painted with the spy brush.

Szabo's Relatives opens the 37th Hungarian Film Week on January31. The foreign critics' Gene Moskowitz Award will beawarded at the closing ceremony on February 7.

Szabo won an Oscar for his 1981film Mephisto,which portrays an actor who strikes a Faustian deal with the Nazis. He has madeseveral English-language films, including BeingJulia in 2004.