Flóra Kádár

The fate of a Hungarian Jewish family throughout the 20th century.

Ede (Dezso Garas) is in his sixties, and he is full of uncertainty about how he and his wife Kati (Mari Torocsik) will fare in the new post-communist regime in Hungary. At least before, he had some idea what he needed to do to get by, and even if he never made much money with his myriad schemes, they got by. Kati has got a real bug in her ear about their livelihood, and is hounding him to get into the spirit of the new system. This is troubling enough for the old gent, but when he runs into an old mistress (Kati Lazar) and discovers that he has a grown son he has never met or knew about, his life becomes even more confusing. His slimy ex big-shot brother-in-law (Istvan Avar) is a major player in the new entrepeneurial risk-taking, and he beseiges poor Ede with advice as well. In this topical comedy, all these worrisome things, and more, come to a head at a big family celebrtion.

At a dusty crossroads in the Soviet Union villagers surrender their possessions - a horse, a samovar, a goat - to the state. The train which takes them away brings to the village a physically and mentally handicapped woman, barely able to speak. She makes herself bracelets of burrs and studies herself in a cracked and cloudy mirror. Befriended by very few, teased and tormented by many she seeks protection at a huge portrait of Stalin.

In a rural scenery in the throes of difficult changes lives humble but promising young farmer girl 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 his older business partner. 'Land marries land', he says, a phrase which seems to be the unyielding rule of the Hungarian peasantry. But the younger lover is ready to confront any challenge to keep Mari's love.

Based on a true story, a love affair develops between a half brother and half-sister. When pregnancy results and word gets out the public is outraged.

A governor of Tsarist Russia throws a punch at striking workers. Many die as the governor looks on dutifully. From that moment on, he feels he has sinned against the people and expects to be killed too. Despite all the precautions taken by the chief of police, the governor cannot escape his fate, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth - the principle of talio is fulfilled.

1985. Hungary has elections for the first time since long where more than one candidate is allowed to run. The engineer Bodnár is the most popular man in the rural town, who has defended the microclimate of the neighbourhood against a harmful project. Before the elections he is also put on the list. Local power launches a fight against him,

A Roma laborer living in a shantytown strives to organize a traditional, dignified funeral for his wife following her sudden death. He travels to the city to secure the necessary funds and arrangements, navigating various bureaucratic and social obstacles along the way.

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.

When middle-aged Kata realises that her life will only be complete if she has a baby of her own, her longstanding-but-married boyfriend Joska refuses to comply. But by developing an unlikely friendship with the angst-ridden teenage orphan Anna, who is also involved in a controversial relationship, Kata discovers aspects of herself, and her role as a woman, that have gone unexamined throughout her entire, lonely life.

In 1960s Hungary, an introverted teenager’s life is turned upside down by a few days in the company of his coat hanger salesman uncle: a roguish charmer with a zest for life and a weakness for horse racing and women.

One of the most popular musical comedies of the 1950s starts with flirting between a bohemian sport pilot and a serious mathematics teacher. The lesson is that in life, not everything happens as would appear logical at the outset. In the wake of the inflexible and demagogic dramas of Stalinism, this colourful comedy was a true breath of fresh air. It is innovative not only for being full of great hits but also for being the first film in a very long time that was about pure love.

Angi Vera is a young nursing assistant in a hospital. When she speaks out against the appalling conditions, she is reprimanded, but the Communist Party takes her under its wing. She is sent for ideological training, where she learns to be an agitator in exchange for accommodation and meals. Meanwhile, she falls in love with one of her teachers, but she cannot live out her love within the walls of the strict school.

The story of a childless Jewish couple in WWII-era Hungary who adopt a Hungarian boy and raise him with their values and traditions.

Janos Flandera (Frigyes Funtek) is a student who is kept by an older woman in this depressing drama. When he applies to a prestigious school in Moscow, he is turned down because he is a gigolo. Not only is his scholarship request denied, he is sentenced to a year in prison at hard labor. Janos abandons the jealous older woman who helped deny his entrance to the school. Punished after defending a political prisoner, Janos takes solace in love affairs, but his union with the crippled daughter of a prominent political official puts his life in danger.

In the vocational school the professionally excellent Dani János works on his own invention in his leisure time, but he does not like learning. However, even his own father learns in the evenings, he will become a teacher.

Five deserters hide in a village inhabited only by women.

50 min. TV movie directed by Károly Makk, based on a short story by Tibor Déry (director-writer team of the 1971 classic "Szerelem"). Also shown as part of the director's two-part movie, "Két történet a félmúltból" (1980; with "Téglafal mögött").