A communist musical where farmers sing while dying — Jancsó makes revolution look like ballet.
Set in the 1890s on the Hungarian plains, a group of farm workers go on strike in which they face harsh reprisals and the reality of revolt, oppression, morality and violence.
Direction
Eleven-minute tracking shots that swallow characters whole.
Cinematography
Red everywhere — blood, flags, sunset, Jancsó's unblinking eye.
Score
Folk songs become funeral dirges for the revolution.
Director
Miklós Jancsó
István Bujtor
Petkó Szautner András
Tamás Cseh
Énekes
György Cserhalmi
Socialist
Andrea Drahota
Nagy Mária, socialist
Gyöngyi Bürös
Ráczné, socialist
Mari Csomós
Maid
Ilona Gurnik
Peasant woman
Éva Spányik
A mourning woman in a white shawl
József Madaras
Hegedüs Bálint, socialist
Lajos Balázsovits
Young officer
Tibor Orbán
Pongrácz András, socialist
Juhász Jácint
Tóth Ferenc, socialist
András Bálint
Count Majláth
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Jancsó used only 28 shots for the entire film, averaging over three minutes each — the longest reaches eleven minutes without a cut.
Banned briefly in Hungary for being 'too pessimistic' about revolution, then celebrated internationally as anti-Stalinist allegory.
HU
