Dir. Krisztina Goda, Hungary, 2006, 120 mins, subtitles
Cast: Kata Dobo, Ivan Fenyo, Sandor Csanyi
Review by Carol Allen
1956 was an important year in European history. Hungary was, at that time, a small nation under the control of the Soviet Union. On 23rd October a peaceful student demonstration against the communist regime became the first step in the Hungarian revolution against the Russian occupying force. Demonstrators became freedom fighters and a new government was formed. However, their new-found freedom didn't last long. Just as happened later in Czechoslovakia in 1968, the full might of the Russian army moved in to suppress the revolution. Revolutionaries were imprisoned, tortured and executed, and more than two hundred thousand people fled to the West.
It's an exciting and inspiring David and Goliath story, which surprisingly appears to have never before been told as such on film, not even in post Soviet Hungary itself. Hungarian born Hollywood producer Andrew Vajna, who escaped in 1956 as a twelve year old boy, is the man behind the film and he commissioned another Hungarian born Hollywood player, Joe Eszterhas, to write the original screenplay, but they decided not to make it as a commercial English language blockbuster with star names but to shoot it in the land and the language where it happened with a young untried director. It was a wise decision. The film is a little old-fashioned in style but that, combined with its black and white photography, and a young cast unknown to us in the West, gives it a sense of historical truth.
1956 is also an Olympic Games year and one sport at which Hungary shines in is water polo. Karcsi (Fenyo) and Tibi (Csanyi) are members of the national team due to compete in the games. Until, that is, they get caught up in the student activism and the battles on the streets, and Karcsi meets and falls in love with militant student leader Viki (Dobo) and abandons water polo for freedom fighting. But when the revolution appears to have won the day, Viki persuades him to rejoin the team and compete against the Russians in Melbourne. So, when the Soviet tanks roll into Budapest, he is on his way to the other side of the world.
Ezsterhas knows how to tell a story engagingly and here he gives us a strong, and clearly defined group of characters, who are very believable in the context of the situation. Dobo is particularly charismatic. The love story works nicely and the sequences of the inexperienced but determined students fighting the Russian soldiers on the streets have a real sense of excitement and of the youthful idealism, which fuelled the revolution. The Olympics sequence at the end, with the spectators in Melbourne cheering for poor little Hungary groaning under Russian oppression is a bit of a movie cliché in terms of putting a positive Hollywood style spin on what was, after all, a failed revolution. Winning at sport seems pretty small beer, when intercut with the horror of what's happening back home. Even so, it's a good recreation of an important piece of history, which was largely brought about by young people and about which many young people today may well be totally unaware.
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