Known for Acting
A speechless war poem set in a remote village. The farmers struck by war turn into fighters.
György Szomjas’s first feature—made after a decade of short documentaries—is a bold attempt at a goulash western, set on the puszta, or Great Hungarian Plain, in 1837. Mixing Miklós Jancsó imagery and a Sergio Leone narrative, this ballad-like saga opens with image of a lone horseman on the empty plain, riding past a rude gallows. The film concerns the vengeful return of a legendary betyár (outlaw), briefly a hero to the local herdsmen who oppose the state building a canal across their grazing land. Although Szomjas works from ethnographic records and archival material, it is hardly surprising that this violent, primitivist film would be more popular with Hungarian audiences than critics. Replete with young guns, crooked sheriffs, tavern brawlers and hardbitten plug-uglies, this widescreen film is strikingly shot by Elémer Ragályi (cinematographer for most of Gyula Gazdag’s films)—a feast of loamy, autumnal colors.
In Autumn of 1941, the German army, determined to put down a Communist-led uprising in Serbia, is conducting a policy of killing 100 hostages for any German soldier killed. The city of Kraljevo is the site of one of those massacres, portrayed in this movie.
"The Written Off" is a famous Serbian TV miniseries, that was very popular in former Yugoslavia, originally airing in 1974. Due to its popularity, Radio Television of Serbia has shown reruns of the series ten times, the last re-run starting in 2012. The series has achieved something of a cult status among its audience and still attracts an estimated 3 million viewers with its last rerun. Idea of series derives from exploits of freedom fighters in Belgrade during World War II, and all the characters and events are fictitious.
An extended version of the eponymous feature film.
A photographer on an archaeological expedition digging up Etruscan ruins in Italy begins to suspect that not all the Etruscans buried there are actually dead.
Sarajevo 1944. The German armies desperately need fuel in the retreat. Walter, the enigmatic and charismatic leader of the resistance movement, can endanger their supplies. The Germans are taking a cunning plan to remove that obstacle.
