Celebrated Hungarian director and screenwriter Peter Bacso died Wednesday. He was 81. The Association of Hungarian Film Artists made the announcement but did not detail the cause of death.

Extremely influential in Hungary’s film industry, Bacso was known for the satirical nature of his work which focused on life in Hungary under the rule of Stalin. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Hungarian Film Week.

Starting out as a scriptwriter/editor in the late 1940s Basco honed his trade on films like “Valahol Europaban” (“It Happened in Europe”), and eventually landed work with many leaders in Hungarian film including Zoltan Fabri, Geza Radvanyi, and Karoly Makk.

1969 saw the release of, “A tanu” (“The Witness”), Basco’s controversial film that questioned the ideals and virtues of the lifestyles of the 1950s. It was banned in Hungary for nearly a decade, but has since become a critical favorite hailed as a classic of Hungarian film.