Sandor Csoori Movies
1956 was a turbulent year in Hungary; an Eastern Bloc nation which came under the political control of the Soviet Union after suffering under Nazi domination during World War II, Hungary rose up against the U.S.S.R. in a revolutionary bid for independence that was shut down in less than two weeks when Soviet troops rolled into the country to crush the democratic uprising. Later that same year, with the memory of the violent reprisals of the Russian invasion clear in everyone's minds, the Soviets and the Hungarians met on another field of battle -- the water polo semifinals at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. Determined not to buckle under to the Russians, the Hungarian team played an aggressive match that was described by many as the most violent water polo contest in Olympic history. Filmmaker Colin Keith Gray looks back at the events of this crucial year in Hungarian history with the documentary Freedom's Fury, which tells the stories of both the Hungarian revolution and the nation's water polo team in their bid to turn the tables on the Soviet Union, if only in Olympic competition. Olympic swimming legend Mark Spitz narrates the film; Lucy Liu and Quentin Tarantino served as executive producers on the project. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1990
This single-focus documentary allows Bela Kemenfyi to tell the story of his astonishing survival. Shot by Russian soldiers in 1944 when he was fifteen, he was left to die. When, though critically wounded, he simply didn't, die, he was taken to a gulag (prison/work camp) where he spent the next nine years. Even after his return home, he had serious challenges, because as a cripple, he was unable to find work in the climate of 1953. Somehow he lived to tell his tale, and the director has chosen to let Bela's face fill the screen for the vast majority of the film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Andras (Gyorgy Cserhalmi) is an artist whose past comes back to haunt him in this political thriller. Sent to a reformatory for his involvement in the 1956 Hungarian uprising, Andras has become a shepherd to escape the turmoil. One day, he recognizes the chauffeur of a powerful Party member as the cruel supervisor of the facility who drove a youth to suicide. The Party official, with a pretty daughter and an axe to grind, goes after Andras when he expresses an interest in his daughter. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- György Cserhalmi, Anna Rackevei, (more)
- 1978
The year 1848 saw a revolution and two governments in France, a revolt in Czechoslovakia, another in Austria, and the abdication of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor. It also saw unrest throughout parts of the Austro-Hungarian empire. In this story, a group of Hungarian hussars who have served the time of their enlistment in the Imperial Austrian Army want to go home. They refuse military orders to fire on civilians in Crakow (a sometimes Polish city) and head back for their Hungarian home through Austrian military lines. Filled with archaic notions of honor, the 80 men in this unit are hunted and killed in barbaric fashion by their military commanders. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jozsef Madaras, György Cserhalmi, (more)
- 1974
In this tightly crafted and detailed prison drama, set in the late 1920s, a murderer is placed in the same cell-block as three communists and, through his contact with the three men, comes to a heightened political awareness and an awareness of the human potential for bravery. He was put there as a spy for the authorities, and even though his cell-mates know that, they receive him with kindness. When conditions in the prison go from bad to worse, he discovers the power of their commitment to their cause. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1974
This movie tells of the exploits of a young Hungarian soldier, who, on a midwinter 15-day leave, goes with his grandmother to track down his father who has deserted from the army and joined the (communist) partisans. The two of them are confronted by an army search party, and in order to win their freedom he must demonstrate some form of cooperation. He leads them to a site from which they could find his father. After a number of harrowing episodes, in which his father is killed and his grandmother dies in the snow, he himself goes off into the hills to join the partisan cause. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Gyorgy Dozsa (Ferenc Bessenyei) is appointed by a Hungarian Cardinal to lead people from four countries in a religious crusade. Men from Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia and Romania are gathered together for the pilgrimage. Once the army was in place, Dozsa decides to lead revolt against the noblemen. He is captured after a fierce battle and subjected to torture. He is forced to sit on a white hot iron throne, and a glowing metal crown is placed on his head. His refusal to renounce his actions endeared him to freedom fighters in Eastern Europe for centuries to come. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ferenc Bessenyei, Janos Koltai, (more)
- 1968
An aspiring film student is denied a scholarship to the state-funded university when his father is thrown in jail. The man had stopped a train in order to facilitate the union between two old friends. The son then takes a job as a land surveyor and meets a Greek man who works towards the collective benefits of the peasants. The man is killed in a peasant uprising prompted by a bureaucratic boondoggle. The surveyor looks after the man's widow as his emerging political and social awareness leads him take a stand against government injustice. Another incident, in which gypsies are rounded up by state hygiene workers, further galvanizes the man's beliefs. He photographs the incident, and his work allows him to be accepted into the school from which he was previously denied admission. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
