János Görbe

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 »

“This is a fascinating, thought-provoking film which may be invaluable to anyone interested in the complexities of socialist Hungary. It takes the form of the (fictional) study of a single Hungarian village through interviews by a reporter, but the village is clearly an allegory for Hungary as a whole and the process through which the country passed from the beginning of socialism through to the aftermath of 1956. Because of its narrative structure and its level of sensitivity and sophistication it has the potential to be immensely informative; it is also a moving and disturbing film.”Read More »

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Arguably the most gifted Hungarian filmmaker of his generation, István Sz ts has been compared by critics to Ford, Vigo and Renoir. His forgotten masterpiece, People of the Mountains, is the story of a woodcutter and his family who live high in mountains of Transylvania. Forced out of their home, they are enticed into working for the very company that ejected them, only for their lives to begin to unravel one tragic misfortune after another.Read More »

Set in a detention camp in Hungary 1869, at a time of guerrilla campaigns against the ruling Austrians, Jancsó deliberately avoids conventional heroics to focus on the persecution and dehumanization manifest in a time of conflict. Filmed in Hungary’s desolate and burning landscape, Jancsó uses his formidable technique to create a remarkable and terrifying picture of war and the abuse of power that still speaks to audiences today.Read More »