Haz a Szikiak Alatt (The House Under the Rocks) is considered by many to be Hungarian director Karoly Makk’s masterpiece. Janos Gorbe plays a soldier, sick of heart and mind, who returns to his home after a long and debilitating war. He finds that his wife is dead, and his son is now under the care of his sister-in-law, played by Irene Psota. An embittered hunchback, Psota tends to Gorbe’s wounds and keeps him isolated from the rest of the village, hoping in this way that he will eventually fall in love with her. He doesn’t, and tragedy is the result. One of the hits of the 1958 Venice Film Festival, Haz a Skikiak Alatt was equally well received at the San Francisco Film Festival (between its European and American showings, the film’s running time had been judiciously trimmed by several minutes).Read More »
