Acting
The story recalling the spirit of Gilgamesh, the Sumerian king quarrelling with his approaching death, takes place in a cancer hospital in Budapest. Dávid, the young ethnography scientist resigned to his lot and is indifferent to his approaching death. His specialist reckons, however, that such a searching and stubborn mind with thorough knowledge of the nature of his own illness, will be able to fight death.
Pongrácz, an employee of the railway company and participant of the movement called "two thousand tons", is killed in what looks to be an accident. Szabó, his friend, having found the workbook, goes on with the fight.
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.
On New Year's Eve in 1956 the artist couple, the actor János and the dancer Viki are hastily packing. While they are waiting for the car, which is to take them across the border, their entire life is replayed in front of their eyes.
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.
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.
This is a satirical comedy poking fun at favouritism. Kis Jenő proposes to Malvinka each year, but in vain, as the mother of his beloved considers him hopelessly unfortunate.
Kiss, an engineer, accompanies his wife to the maternity ward. He wants to leave the woman because while he was away in Brazil, she did not undergo an abortion as they had agreed before. While he is packing up at home, the memories of the sweet events of their life together keep coming to him, one after the other.
Don Juan, the seducer, is cursed by the governor of Seville: he can only live until a woman rejects him. Thanks to this curse, Don Juan has been living in bliss for 400 years when he arrives in Budapest. Of course, in the new city he chooses a new girl to conquer, Kata Lukacs. The experienced heartthrob used all tricks and tricks, but it seems that none of this has an effect on Kata.
When a Latin teacher publishes an essay on the Carthaginian General Hannibal, he is quickly hailed as a celebrity genius, but in reality has become an unwitting pawn of far-right politicians.
A young woman on board of a bus notices that her watch has been stolen. The ticket collector keeps everybody on board, and upon the advice of a traffic police, they drive directly to the nearest police station.
13 March 1965 (Hungary)
At Christmas Eve in 1944 the runaway Pintér and Gozsó get through the Soviet blockade around Budapest. Pintér intends to hide in a flat abandoned by his own relatives, but he finds his relatives called the Turnovszkys, who are hiding the Jewish Jutka as well. Love unfolds between Zoltán and Jutka.
Félix, a somewhat clod-hopping young man, finds himself in the Grand Hotel of Little Lagonda, barefooted and in pyjamas. He is soon followed by a hooded, fat and leggy gangster. This is all the more strange as the hotel is under quarantine with the pretext of a plague-epidemic, in order to make it a suitable ground for the negotiations of certain oil-companies.
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.
Varsa engineer receives the Kossuth award for his excellent work. His career once began at the family enterprise of his wife, so the woman invites her relatives for a dinner party.
A group of Slovak tourists travels to Budapest on a luxury liner with a trio of eternal fortune-tellers, the former customs officer Hraško, the flirtatious Irena Domastová, who is divorcing her husband, the Petráš family, the old Mr. Garbiarik and the elegant Mr. Belan. Each of them, however, is pursuing other, their own interests on this voyage...
