A fake millionaire, real chaos, and a town that chooses delusion over truth—1950s Hungarian hustle at its finest.
A heavily indebted schoolteacher raising two marriageable daughters is buoyed by rumors that his long-lost uncle in America is a millionaire, until the uncle’s unexpected arrival in poverty sparks a rush of creditors, patrons and fortune-seekers. Ambitious lawyer Jenő Szekeres orchestrates the deception so that the family, the town and himself profit from the false fortune, and even when the truth comes out, everyone, including Szekeres, now eyeing a political career, chooses to uphold the lie.
Acting
Iván Darvas smarms his way through every scene with perfect political sleaze.
Writing
The lie becomes truth because everyone needs it to—devastating final act.
Director
Viktor Gertler
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the post-1956 thaw, the film slyly critiques both capitalist aspiration and socialist reality—everyone's lying, everyone's complicit.
Director Viktor Gertler filmed this after the Hungarian Revolution's suppression; the townspeople's willing blindness to truth plays very differently knowing the historical context.
HU
