Andras Kovacs' film, considered one of the most important Hungarian films of the 1960s, centers around four men who await trial for their involvement in the massacre of several thousand Jewish and Serbian people of Novi Sad in 1942. Each denies any responsibility, claiming that they were only following orders. The film is significant for its willingness to address the subject of Hungary's role in WWII, which was taboo at the time of the its release.
Acting
Latinovits' cold bureaucratic evil will chill your blood.
Direction
Kovács' tight framing traps you with these men.
Writing
Dialogue that weaponizes euphemism and deflection.
Director
András Kovács
Zoltán Latinovits
Major Büky
Iván Darvas
Captain Tarpataki
Ádám Szirtes
Corporal Szabó
Tibor Szilágyi
Ensign Pozdor
Margit Bara
Rózsa
Teri Horváth
a cashier
Irén Psota
Betti
Mari Szemes
Milena
Éva Vass
Edit
István Avar
Corporal Dorner
Tamás Major
Colonel Grassy
Gyula Benkő
Lieutenant Colonel Kázoni
András Ambrus
Büky's bachelor
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during the Kádár regime's 'goulash communism,' the film's explicit condemnation of Hungarian fascism was genuinely dangerous—officials feared it would 'damage national prestige.'
Kovács based the structure on actual Novi Sad trial transcripts; the men's circular arguments mirror Hannah Arendt's 'banality of evil' thesis published just three years earlier.
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