At Midnight

Director: György Révész

Cast: Miklós Gábor, Éva Ruttkai, Zsuzsa Bánki

The first film looking at the subject of 1956 to be shot following the crushing of the revolution. It tells the story of a love affair between a dancer Viki (Éva Ruttkai) and an actor (Miklós Gábor). It’s New Year’s Eve 1956 and the artist couple are reminiscing about how they met at a film shoot, things that happened to them in the city, and while they pack and burn photos they talk about what this is all about. Viki is concerned about her family who have been resettled in the countryside and she talks about the new opportunities in the west, stating she wants to leave, whereas János would prefer to stay because the Hungarian language is at the core of his vocation. While the work touches on the subject of defection, this special status movie does not openly depict the revolution as the slowly consolidating Kádár government was still making cultural concessions.

Continue to the full programme for the film Seventy Years On – 1956 on Film >>