The Fifth Seal 1976
In 1944 Budapest, one of a group of four friends poses a hypothetical moral question to the others, an act that will unexpectedly alter their lives forever.
In 1944 Budapest, one of a group of four friends poses a hypothetical moral question to the others, an act that will unexpectedly alter their lives forever.
Áron is a happy child in his family. But at some point things take a different turn, and his mother starts to lose her health rapidly. As this happens, the man in charge decides what's best for Áron without consulting the young boy's opinion, and the boy finds himself thrown out of his warm home into an orphanage in the woods. He's utterly displeased by what's happening, without knowing he has yet to face much worse...
In the dense and murky woodlands of provincial Hungary, the search for a child murderer drags a once-respected detective into an all-consuming obsession enshrouded by irresolution and despair, even long after he has been taken off the case. What emerges is not a crime story, but a harrowing venture through the darkness of the human soul.
Iván Berend is a nobleman from the countryside, owner of considerable wealth. If necessary, he duels and plays cards like his fellow gentry, if necessary, he dances and compliments like most cavaliers. But far from him is this high life. He prefers to lecture on natural history, and does not hesitate to prove his claims by burning a diamond. He runs the Bondavar mine and experiments on a fire extinguishing agent. Evila, the beautiful starlet, and her impetuous fiancé, Peter Szaffrán, work in the mine. They are hired by the Viennese banker Félix Kaulmann to help him with his grand plan for the coal basin, which will ruin Ivan Berend.
A tale about an independent-minded university professor who leaves her family to travel across the countryside to visit a friend.
A divorced young math teacher is tormented by her high school students.
This film, set at the beginning of the 17th century, is the first East-European "Eastern". Bocskai István orders the free Heyducks to shepherd a huge herd of cattle through the country torn to three parts, to the Dalmatian coast, where he can get weapons in exchange, for fighting the Austrians.
Private inspector Hável happens to travel on the train which is attacked at Biatorbágy. His attention is drawn to a suspicious man, and in the next few days he confirms that it was indeed him who committed the crime. Yet the police accuses not the lunatic Marschalkó but the communists. Summary justice is declared.
Six physical workers, once working for Videoton, decide to come together and create a company on their own.
Laci Ács the two-time Olympic champion boxer suffers his first defeat on an international tour that his coach was heavily against. After a tough period he starts working hard to get back into the ring, win back the coach's trust and win his third gold at the Olympics. Starring real three-time Olympic gold medalist boxing legend László Papp.
Vendel Imre is a driver, his wife is expecting a baby, they have two sons. Before 1945 Vendel was a military officer. In 1951 they receive a letter from the Ministry of Interior: they will be transported to a forced domicile, allowed to take 50 kg personal belongings per person with them.
He travels the country as a fire inspector. He arrives in the small town for a week-long visit, where he meets his old friend József Máté. Máté is a manager, proud of his achievements and spoiling his beautiful young wife Panni. But she's tired of the dollhouse and wants to work, but her husband won't let her. Tired and disillusioned, Palotas immediately senses and understands his wife's dullness and boredom, and encourages Panni to leave her husband...
A story of a mother who had to change her profession from a teacher to a high class prostitute to make a living.
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.
Two arts students, András and Viktor who are writing their thesis on detective stories, make up a story and keep nagging the famous film-director, who just came back from Hollywood, until he undertakes the job. At night they work on the film, in which two youths kill a director returning from the US. In the morning the director is found dead - a knife in his back.
A Budapest high school in the beginning of the 1960s. Dini suffers the torments of adolescence. His father had to leave Hungary after the uprise in 1956, and since then Dini's mother has had to take care of her two sons on her own. A friend of Dini’s father, Bodor, is released from prison and moves in with them. Dini and his brother are far from happy about this intrusion on their family life.
Aunt Ilka, who likes company, opens her house standing in the middle of a six-acre rose garden in the little town for the golden youth of the town. As a result of her benevolence, the tenants are in the position to adore not only the roses but a nice bunch of to-be-married girls of the town.
This story follows a young student, who is orphaned as she grows to adulthood in the shadow of the 1956 Hungarian uprising. Coming from the Communist intelligentsia, she sees her friends and family react differently. Her lover, a married factory manager, supports the patriots and later assists fellow workers in staging a strike. Meanwhile her sister and others express anger at being forced from their homes during the revolution and continue to express a hatred for the rebels afterwards. But in the end they realize that for all people, real life is not possible after the revolt and its brutal suppression by the Soviets and their collaborators.
The opera-film, as opposed to Gluck's Vienna version, is a recollection of the ancient tragic Greek myth. Orpheus, who is able to defeat Hades with the power of art, is unable to conquer his own human defects. Amor is sympathetic to Orpheus' sufferings as he mourns his dead beloved, and lets him know the message sent by the Gods, namely that he may take her home from the underworld if he is capable of not looking at her.
On one hot summer night, the residents of a Hungarian apartment house slated for demolition restlessly revisit their haunted pasts as they face an uncertain future. In a gently turning kaleidoscope of dream imagery, regret-laden nostalgia and painstakingly intimate detail, the looming wrecking ball pales in significance to the accumulated experiences each dreamer revisits. Pre-war prejudice, occupying Nazis and Stalinist deprivations all come and go as each tenant’s backward glance yields moments of aching sensuality, infectious exuberance and catastrophic loss.