SODRASBAN

Five young men and two young women have just graduated from secondary school, except for one of them, who is a medical student. They are spending their vacation in a village on the bank of the Tisza River. After the boys have a game of soccer on the beach, they challenge each other to a test of courage that consists in diving down into the water and coming tip with a fistful of mud at the river bottom. Then they light a fire and begin to dance. It is only then that Vadoc notices that her boyfriend, Gabi, has disappeared. The search for him goes on into the depth of the night, but it is in vain. This tragic event pushes the group into a kind of examination of conscience and reflection on their relationships. Bobe acknowledges that her relationship with Karesz is based only on physical attraction. Laci, the most intelligent and sensitive boy, is upset at facing death, a problem that he cannot manage to respond to. Meanwhile, Vadoc, who was in love with Gabi, cries over what could have been but did not happen.

"The film speaks about the problems of young people, but I have not dedicated the film to them alone. Basically, I have always been interested in the relationship between community and individual. And even if I am trying to force the issue by formulating it in one phrase, I think it is necessary to formulate it in many phrases because I have attempted to ask more questions. From one point of view, the goodness of a social unit does not depend only on the fact that we declare that it is a good social unit. It also depends on the fact that the individual and his personality is always the principal factor. If I accentuate responsibility, I have based myself on the law of capillary action. Hence, what a man does inside of a community is also reflected onto the behavior of the community as a whole. We often find ourselves in a situation where what we think about current events is that, in effect, they have nothing to do with us and that we are not responsible for them. However, we are directly responsible for them. " (Interview of Jozsef Homorody with Istvan Gaal, "Filmkultura", 2/1964)

Director and screenplay: Istvan Gaal.
Director of photography: Sandor Sara.
Music: Andras Szollosy, "Concerto grosso in re minore" di Antonio Vivaldi, aria detta "La Frescobalda" di Gerolamo Frescobaldi.
Cast and characters: Andrea Drahota (Vadoc), Marianne Moor (Bobe), Sandor Csikos (Laci), Janos Harkanyi (Gabi), Andras Kozak (Luja), Tibor Orban (Zoli), Gyula Szersen (Karesz).
Production company: Studio Hunnia, Budapest.