At a dusty crossroads in the Soviet Union villagers surrender their possessions - a horse, a samovar, a goat - to the state. The train which takes them away brings to the village a physically and mentally handicapped woman, barely able to speak. She makes herself bracelets of burrs and studies herself in a cracked and cloudy mirror. Befriended by very few, teased and tormented by many she seeks protection at a huge portrait of Stalin.
Acting
Juli Básti's wordless physicality devastates without dialogue.
Cinematography
Dust-choked frames that breathe Soviet decay.
Direction
Bacsó's satirical precision from 'The Witness' sharpened to nightmare.
Director
Péter Bacsó
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Bacsó directed 'The Witness' (1969), the most banned Hungarian film under socialism—this 1991 coproduction finally exorcised his Soviet obsession.
The 'train of goods' sequence was filmed at an actual defunct Soviet collective farm; some 'extras' were former kolkhoz workers watching their own history.
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