KERESZTELO

Menyhért, a sculptor with a successful career, and his beautiful young wife arrive in a little village in their beautiful car. They have come to attend the baptism of the first son of Menyhért's youngest brother. The other members of the family are present: his little sister, Jolan, and her husband, Andras, the principal of the local high school. As they get together, they reminisce over memories of when they were little children and teenagers. There were the war, poverty, living in hiding, and then the beginnings of their careers, which brought them down different paths. There was the enthusiasm that grew out of the dawn of a new era. There was Andras's arrest and Menyhért's double dealing. There was the hardwon success and the rundown talent. There were the memories of a happy marriage, but was it really happy? These were events which were reevoked in an atmosphere of growing tension. Conflicts of interests are not what set the two men against each other, but their different visions of the world. The antagonism and passion that had been fermenting in them for a long time explode in the midst of an argument abated by their drunkenness. They beat each other savagely and then straighten out their clothes. When Andras's son asks him what happened, he answers: "Nothing. It was only a game."

"Keresztelo speaks about selfanalysis and about faithfulness to oneself, to ones ideas, and to one's ideals. Istvan Gaal, the film's talented directorscreenwriter has stayed faithful to himself in the best parts of his work. He has preserved his sincere social and moral interests as well as his special way of expressing himself, even though in this case we find something of the intimate representation of the Hungarian countryside. (Vera Vajk, "Nepszava", 11/4/1968)

Director and screenplay: Istvan Gaal.
Director of photography: Miklos Herczenik.
Music: Andras Szfflffisy.
Cast and characters: Zoltan Latinovits (Menyhért), Janos Koltai (Andras), Maria Majczen (Jolan), Eva Ruttkay (Dora), Zsuzsa Balogh (Ida), Jozsef Bihari (il maestro).
Production company: MaFilm (Studio 4), Budapest.