HOGY SZALADNAK A FAK...

Simon has just graduated from the university. He decides to spend the summer at absolute rest. Nevertheless, he finds himself forced into a painful examination of conscience. In the course of a troubled night, he finds himself in some inexplicable way in the place where he grew up as a small child and where he had been for fifteen years. His friends have gone away from there to seek their fortunes far from that immobile world. His uncle is dead. Only the old people survive in the village, like his aunt Lina, who had been a mother to him. Here he discovers manual labor as a cure for his loneliness. here he meets Misa, an agronomist, and Judit, his wife, who are disillusioned but also moved by a sort of primitive faith. A long conversation with Judit shakes his world of sterile certainties. In the end, he feels forced to stay in the village to share the fate of these people. He finally sees his aunt Lina fulfil a life-long wish. It is only after her death that Simon will leave the country. He will be carrying the purifying force of work as his viaticum.

"A rare example of an ugly and meaningless title. Nevertheless, there is meaningful film behind. It is improbable that it will go over well with audiences because it has no plot. One can sum up the main core of the inner story in the fact that a young history teacher who has not seen his home town in eleven years returns to visit his old house. He looks around, he observes. He feels uncomfortable and makes others feel uncomfortable. He is an outsider who tries to get to know his old environment. All this happens in an exaggerated, slow way and gets lost in details with phlegmatic calm - at least according to those who would want diversion at the movies. And yet, it is a film that is full of beauty. It does not posture. It rejects every cliché and every prefabricated dramatic element." (M.G.P., "Nepszabadsag", 7/4/1967)

Director: Pal Zolnay.
Screenplay: Péter Modos, Pal Zolnay.
Director of photography: Ferenc Szécsényi.
Music: Zsolt Durko.
Cast and characters: Istvan Iglodi (Stimon), Manyi Kiss (zia Lina), Janos Koltai (Misa), Éva Papp (Judit).
Production company: MaFilm (Studio 2), Budapest.