Béla Barsi

A Hungarian Nabob

On the novel by Mór Jókai. The first half of the XVIII century. Several decades of life of a noble family Karpati.

Guns and Doves

1920 in a mining town in the country-side. The team of children led by Ferkó Boda fish guns and a flag of Red soldiers out of the local lake.

Professor Hannibal

A school teacher becomes a momentary hero after having rescued a stuffed-bird from a school incident.

Sweet Anna

The young maid, Anna starts to work for the noble Vizy family. Mrs Vizy is proud of the hard-working servant but doesnt treat her well. Her nephew seduces Anna with sweet words, but when leaves her as soon as she gets pregnant. The humiliations of Anna finally lead to a tragic ending.

Az elsö esztendö

Endre and Agha, the newlyweds, had a hard time at first. Agi's parents refused to help them. Then a child was born. Life without an apartment and without sufficient funds became even more difficult. It came to divorce. But love prevailed: Endre and Agi realized that together they would overcome all difficulties.

A helyseg kalapacsa

13 March 1965 (Hungary)

A Hungarian Nabob 2: Karpathy Zoltan

On the novel by Mór Jókai. The first half of the XVIII century. Several decades of life of a noble family Karpati.

Germinal

Dismissed from the railroads in 1863 for his union activities, Etienne Lantier found a job at the Voreux coal mine. But work was hard, wages were low and safety left much to be desired. Lantier tried to organize the miners into a union. When mine manager Hennebeau refused to negotiate, the workers launched a general strike, which ended with the intervention of the troops.

Cantata

A young doctor undergoes a spiritual crisis when he returns to his rural home.

Twenty Hours

A crusading newspaper reporter covers the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. Initially critical of the communists, the feature later espouses the virtues of the social changes implemented since the invasion. The title refers to the period of time the reporter spent interviewing witnesses to the invasion.

The Brigade No. 39

The spring of 1919. Karikás Frigyes reorganises brigade 39 at the Tisza. His most devoted soldiers are Korbély János and his followers, who remain faithful to the political commissioner under all circumstances.

The Round-Up

After the failure of the Kossuth's revolution of 1848, people suspected of supporting the revolution are sent to prison camps. Years later, partisans led by outlaw Sándor Rózsa still run rampant. Although the authorities do not know the identities of the partisans, they round up suspects and try to root them out by any means necessary.

Bogáncs

One day, Máté Galamb loses his faithful dog, Bogáncs, of the Puli breed. The runaway dog is found in the woods by the old, disillusioned acrobat, Dodó.

The Birth of Menyhért Simon

Every member of a small community in the snow-capped Bükk Mountains is trying to help the doctor get to István Simon forester's house where his wife is about to give birth to their first child.

The Brute

This drama about a boorish non-conformist takes place in Hungary after the war and is dulled a little by political overtones but is still an engaging story. The setting is the countryside, where an independent, landowning farmer busies himself in his free time by bedding down the women on his farm and then tossing them aside. One such ill-treated lass ends up marrying a young man who is in charge of a communal farm, a farm the womanizing "beast" of the title is later forced to join. The arrogant, formerly independent farmer does not reform his ways and is soon chasing after the young manager's wife, the woman he dropped not that long ago. The results are disastrous.

My Way Home

In the aftermath of World War II, a Hungarian teenager, captured by Soviet troops, forms an unlikely bond with a Russian soldier in a remote prison camp.

The Storm

Vörös Hajnal (Red Dawn), a co-operative is the venue of skylarking, while the storm destroys the wheat which is to be harvested soon. Árendás, a middle-peasant, voices severe accusations against members of the co-operative: out of negligence, they failed to keep the ditches clean. It is always the soft option they seem to favour, while the necessity of properly taking care of the farmlands is long-forgotten. Members of the co-operative and the village people are deeply divided.

The Man of Gold

Adaptation of Mór Jókai's classic 19th century novel on Mihály Tímár, the captain of a commercial Danube ship in the 1830s, who finds unexpected fortune by meeting a Turkish aristocrat fleeing from his home country with his daughter Tímea. On their journey, they find an unknown island on the Danube, called the Senki szigete (the Island of No-one), a sort of earthly paradise, with only an old woman and her young daughter Noémi living on it.

Iron Flower

During the worldwide Depression of the 1930s, a young shopgirl is in love with a man of her own financial class, but succumbs to the seductive machinations of her wealthy boss.

Spiral Staircase

The film is an interpretation of everyday life and privacy as well as the first love-triangle story after 1945. Benkő Lajos, the country librarian, is stationed in the capital. In lack of a suitable apartment, his wife and children have to stay in the country.

The Smugglers

In the thirties, the poor living by the Romanian-Hungarian border were forced to smuggle if they wanted to survive. Mihály, a Hungarian peasant, kills a border guard while fleeing. He is fed up with smuggling and wants to put an end to it, yet he needs money to get a job, so he embarks on another turn.

Two Confessions

This easy-to-take Hungarian drama is also known as Two Wishes. The prinicipal characters are a pair of juvenile delinquents, who may still be redeemable. The sullen duo is befriended by a kindly police inspector, who takes it upon himself to straighten out the boys. What follows cannot be termed surprsingly or innovative, though it is immensely satisfying. Of interest is the fact that a Communist-bloc film would admit to a delinquency problem in the so-called Worker's Paradise. Ket Vallomas was the Hungarian entry in the 1957 Cannes Film Festival.

Fourteen Lives

September 1952 in a mine in Northern-Hungary after an explosion water breaks in from the neighbouring shaft and fourteen miners become trapped. The whole country unites to save them.

Merry-Go-Round

In a rural scenery in the throes of difficult changes lives a humble but promising young farmer girl called Mari Pataki. Her father forbids her from seeing the man she loves. The father, above all preoccupied by work on the fields and prospective wealth, decides to give his daughter in marriage to an old but rich man with whom he does business. Land marries land, he says. This seems to be the unyielding rule of the Hungarian peasantry. But the young lover is ready to stand up to any challenge to keep Maris love.

The Bitter Truth

Sztankó János, the freshly appointed director of a company that builds agricultural factories meets his former classmate, Palócz. Palócz is just released from the prison where he got on made-up charges. Sztankó suddenly decides to employ the engineer since he wants to show up spectacular, quick results.

The Day of Wrath

In May 1919 in a small rural town beside Salgótarján the local high society wants to get the power back with the leadership of dr. Máriáss, exploiting the outside attack launched against the Republic of Councils.

Dani

Dani, the few-month-old little boy born outside marriage is left by Eszter in the lap of her companion on the train. The widowed Aranka takes him willingly to her. The child is already ten years old and has a good life with Aranka. Then Géza enters their life and he does not welcome the child of someone else.

A Sunday Romance

The poetic love story depicting everyday life from a micro-psychological aspect takes place in the 1910s. Sándor, editor of the local paper, serves as a foot soldier on Sundays, but spends weekdays playing billiard and courting women. One Sunday afternoon - in soldier's uniform - he meets Vilma, the beautiful maid, whose honesty and chastity turns the adventure to love.

Yesterday

October, 1956. Colonel lieutenant Szabó sends a platoon with the mission of calming the people demonstrating in the town. The platoon is lined up under the command of Lieutenant Csendes and the soldiers aim at the demonstrators. Szusza Kis changes sides, and Csendes is unable to shoot at his childhood mate. They withdraw.

The House Under the Rocks

Three people – a returned prisoner of war, his beautiful second wife, and the possessive, hunchbacked spinster who is his sister-in-law by his first marriage – are isolated in a little house under an extinct volcano, where each strives for personal happiness but is suffocated by their dependence on the others.

A Bird of Heaven

Panni, coming from a landless family of ten and Miska have loved each other for a long time. The pretty Panni, however, has another suitor as well: Komáromi, the big farmer. The two men fight from time to time, but then, during the time Miska is serving his military duty, Panni marries Komáromi to end the tremendous squalor of her family.

Pár lépés a határ

Based on the novel of the same name by Lajos Meszterházy about the escape from prison of two communists sentenced to death. The movie is set in 1921, two years after the defeat of the Hungarian Soviet Republic.

Szombattól hétföig

About the life of young people in Hungary in the late 50s, their joys, hopes and dreams. When Joly entered the factory, she wanted to be as cheerful and carefree as the other girls, and she didn't tell anyone that she had a son. And now, when the wedding day with Ferenc is almost set, Yoli walks around sad and confused. She doesn't know how Feri will take the news of her son. She is afraid that Feri, who loves and trusts her very much, will never understand or forgive her. But Feri turns out to be a real man, and Yoli together with little Ali finds her true happiness.

Sleepless Years

The "sleepless years" in this propaganda piece by director Felix Marlassy occur on Csepel Island, an island south of Budapest that is home to an armaments factory. The factory workers are shown being exploited by imperialists, capitalists gone berserk, and fascists, more or less in that exact chronological sequence. The heavy-handed approach does much to undercut the belief that when socialism finally takes over, the lives of the workers are brought up to a human level. In this instance, audiences might prefer a more nuanced and subtle statement, no matter what the message.

Love and Money

Feri Noszty forges bills of exchange, which is an unforgivable sin in his circle. The family, to pay the debt and save the boy's honour, cash in their only fortune by marrying Vilma, Feri's sister, to a wealthy man. But this will not save Feri, who must resign his commission as an officer. He gets a job as a magistrate, but the income does not satisfy the young man's needs. All that is left is a good marriage and a huge dowry.

Három csillag

The film consists of 3 novellas. 1. On the eve of the Soviet advance into Hungary, workers at a military plant risk everything to strike in defiance, displaying unwavering courage and solidarity. 2. During a fierce battle, three Soviet soldiers shelter in a peasant’s hut where a dying mother begs them to baptize her newborn - an act of compassion they fulfill, leaving behind three stars from their caps as a lasting gift. 3. After liberating a Hungarian town, Soviet troops rescue a hidden throng of civilians, huddled in underground tunnels, from imminent Nazi brutality, saving countless lives in the process.