Lajos Szabó Movies

This is a downbeat story of people frustrated by ordinary problems that builds to a destructive climax as two different stories are told in alternating segments and then brought together for a shattering finale. Sandor (Andor Lucats) is a factory worker who along with his co-workers has just received a bonus for an invention of theirs. The group celebrates at a local restaurant and as Sandor gets increasingly inebriated, his stress and frustrations with life reach a point where they're about to bubble over. He then leaves and goes to a nightclub. On the other hand, Karoly (Gyorgy Dorner) has long chaffed under the restrictions of his domineering mother. He and his girlfriend eventually decide to get married and for once in his life, Karoly is going to stand up on his own. But tragedy strikes the next day as he is heading to work. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

More than a storyline with a beginning, middle, and end, this tale of a foundry worker who engages a woman -- and fellow worker -- to do housekeeping for him is a tale that holds up the Hungarian social system against the morality of an exploitative male-female relationship. After his wife dies, the rough-cut and intentionally nameless "man" (Jozsef Madaras) eventually coerces the "woman" (Julianna Nyako) into doing his housework for a small remuneration. Everything goes along passably well for awhile, until the man adds in more household responsibility in the form of chickens to raise. Due to extra work at the factory, the woman cannot tend to the chickens as she should and the result is that some of them die. The man is furious, verbally abuses her, and then rapes her. Later, the woman discovers she is pregnant, with dire consequences. Throughout the story, the lack of any real identity for the "man" or "woman," as well as other subtle references to the Hungarian state add a political dimension that gives greater meaning to the story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A bereaved gypsy from the city travels to the country to bury his beautiful young wife. He promises the priest some raffia baskets for his services, but the man is met with resistance by his own people for wanting to give his wife an elaborate funeral. The widower is robbed by the man who delivers the casket to the cemetery, many of the baskets are destroyed, and the man risks drowning by retrieving the remaining baskets from the other side of the river. The gypsies beat the man and steal his baskets in this somber drama of a man's devotion to his late, beloved wife. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Three generations of humble Hungarian farmers go all out during a visit to the city which takes them to the home of an important government official for the weekend. They attempt to impress the man by bringing an imposing quantity of food and drink with them. The mother of the family struggles mightily to create what is surely a gourmet masterpiece, and is dismayed to discover that the bureaucrat has a sickly digestive system and cannot eat the feast she has prepared. He also doesn't drink. This puts a damper on their plan to ask the man to help them find a job for the youngest man in the family, who is something of a drifter. Despite that, they manage to have a good time before returning to their country home. They are not badly off, after all, and they are leaving no worse off than they arrived. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

When the barber Boroka (Istvan Gyarmati) accidentally shaves the head of The Boss (Peter Haumann), he unleashes a flurry of head-shavings all over Hungary, beginning with his own. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi