Extinguished Flames

Inhabitants of a small village in Hungary deal with the effects of the fall of Communism. The town's source of revenue, a factory, has closed, and the locals, who include a doctor and three couples, await a cash payment offered in the wake of the shuttering. Irimias, a villager thought to be dead, returns and, unbeknownst to the locals, is a police informant. In a scheme, he persuades the villagers to form a commune with him.

Miskei, the popular and dynamic president of a co-op falls in love with Mari, the attractive wife of the elderly Pató. The deeply feeling woman is fed up with the service beside the haughty land holder, she is longing for tenderness and a child. The passion of Miskei is growing when he sees how crudely, humiliating Pató treats her. During a powerful summer shower, when chance brings them together in an abandoned press house, he storms on Mari confessing love. The woman refuses him bitterly. Miskei calms down and he keeps on expressing his love and high esteem with the woman by steadfast and tiny compliments. Early one morning Mari leaves her husband and sets off to the city to learn and to begin a new life.

A past world is revived in the little cottage in the outskirts, next to the housing blocks under construction. Tamburás, the old hobo collects swerved youth: Diák, who desires freedom, the bus driver who is deprived of his license for having run over someone, and the rest. They have got an easy and unbound life there, with constant music, small thefts, occasional labour, tricks.

Kalán Imre, the district doctor lives in a small village surrounded by mountains. One day he is visited by two young relatives of his and their friend, a doctor at the beginning of his career. The name of the doctor is Király András, and he happens to be the great love of Kalán's young wife from her unmarried years. The orthodox Stalinist Kalán's entire life is filled with his great passion, hunting. The suffocating, narrow lives of the prominent people in the area are slowly revealed to András.

A Hungarian doctor, Dr. Hajnal, who always considered himself out of politics, falls in love with the Soviet intelligence agent, the radio operator Alba, operating in the occupied Wehrmacht of Hungary. By accident, the radio operator is hiding in the doctor’s house. Hainal is drawn into a life-threatening confrontation with the Germans. A difficult question arises before him: to remain neutral when people die around and Alba is threatened with death, or to remain an honest person — to make his personal choice and take part in this struggle.

October, 1956. Colonel lieutenant Szabó sends a platoon with the mission of calming the people demonstrating in the town. The platoon is lined up under the command of Lieutenant Csendes and the soldiers aim at the demonstrators. Szusza Kis changes sides, and Csendes is unable to shoot at his childhood mate. They withdraw.

Nagy István, the formerly poor peasant boy returns to his native village as a teacher. His conviction is that the abyss between rich and poor can be diminished by good will. The rich Böröcz Horváth Klári returns his love, and also Böröcz Horváth is willing to help the poorest family, the Bakos. Bakos Jóska, who was sent to serve the tough Böröcz Horváth as a payment, dies of an infected wound and the people in the village hold the teacher liable as well. Nagy István realises, that the abyss cannot be ceased, what is more, it is impassable. He breaks up with his fiancée and stands by the side of the poor.

The film is a historic parable about the topicality of revolution. 1514. The peasants' uprising is over, Dózsa has been arrested. Werbőczy tries to get the imprisoned peasant leader deny the revolution and offers him the lives of his people in exchange.

Nelli, the icy, introverted farm girl, needs to find a husband following her father's death. She accepts the attentions of the noisy Takaró Sanyi, although she is more attracted to his silent and modest younger brother.

Andrei, the Russian astronaut, has been conducting his research in space on the MIR space station for months, but his landing is being delayed. His wife Svetlana calls him regularly from the space centre by video phone. A casual quarrel between the two (she forgot to pay the gas bill) gives Svetlana the opportunity to tell Andrei that she is seeing someone and that she is leaving him. She runs all the way to Rome after her Italian lover. A virgin black girl meets a man who wants only one thing: to take her innocence. A woman criminal psychologist, with an almost personal interest, "interrogates" a prisoner who breaks down and confesses, while the psychologist's life is shattered... An old man's ear is cut off by a hairdresser and an intimate relationship develops between the two.

Based on the stories of Hungarian writer Gyula Krúdy, this film is a lush and sensuous depiction of the life, loves and memories of serial seducer Szindbád. As the protagonist looks back on his life, past and present, imagination and reality flow inseparably into one another.

On the novel by Mór Jókai. The first half of the XVIII century. Several decades of life of a noble family Karpati.

The film is put at the beginning of the century in Sárszeg, following the humiliation and collapse of a high-school teacher.

This romantic and grandiose historical film depicts the era of the constant incursions and heroic battles fought by the defenders of the castle of Eger, led by captain István Dobó, against the heavy odds of superior numbers through the lives and love of Bornemissza Gergely and Cecey Éva. Gergely is inaugurated as a fighter already at the age of 7, when he escapes the captivity of the half-eyed Turk, Jumurdzsak, with Vica and the war-booty. In thirty years' time he becomes the first assistant of captain Dobó and the brain of the castle in the defence of Eger.

In 1585 the Turks and Vallons are looting the Látrány region.

Count János Buttler rushes home to his parents and his beloved for the school holidays. On the way, they stop at Baron Dőry's house, where János is deviously trapped. In the presence of false witnesses, he is forcibly married to Baron Dőry's pregnant daughter. The swearing priest is the father of the unborn child. Although Buttler, his family and friends do their utmost to have the marriage annulled, the Church and the court, fearing for his authority, will not allow it. John Buttler and his lover therefore choose another way to divorce.

It tells the story of Marie, an austerely beautiful young peasant girl played by the French star, Annabella. She is seduced beneath a flowering tree by the admirer of one of the daughters of the prosperous family for whom she works, becomes pregnant and is cast out.

Peter Gothar films give a sharp, uncensored view of the society. This film is no different. The plot is rather simple: a family goes to vacation with the usual stress. Then on the vacation the wife gets a strange kind of sickness and they go back to Budapest for a cure. While the wife is in the hospital, the husband visits his family. This is quite banal. However the scenario was written by Peter Esterhazy, one of the most influential contemporary writers in Hungary. His style uses a lot of surrealism but in a way that profoundly illuminates the reality. In this film, the reality is an atomized society where the so-called communist ideals are nowhere so everyday people are fully disoriented.

Ulveczky, unbridled bull of the village, is incapable of living in the small community like others. He runs his farm and lives life as a tyrant. His licentious temperament leads him to take whatever he wants, women included, who are swept off their feet. His victims include a beautiful young girl who nearly dies when he tires of and ejects her. With great difficulty, she restarts her life, hoping that she has finally freed herself of the brute who, however, doesn't let go quite so easily.

The "sleepless years" in this propaganda piece by director Felix Marlassy occur on Csepel Island, an island south of Budapest that is home to an armaments factory. The factory workers are shown being exploited by imperialists, capitalists gone berserk, and fascists, more or less in that exact chronological sequence. The heavy-handed approach does much to undercut the belief that when socialism finally takes over, the lives of the workers are brought up to a human level. In this instance, audiences might prefer a more nuanced and subtle statement, no matter what the message.

Summer of 1956. In the small town in the Hungarian country-side, during the time the chief of police spends in a course in Budapest, Rigó Dezső is the boss with full powers. He is fighting tooth and nail to help the local football-team stay in the second national selection. During one of the matches, he beats the referee to death.

Veronika, the niece of the parish priest of Glogova, came to the priesthood because of the death of her mother. While the priest was praying for a blessing in front of the cross in the field, a grey old man put an umbrella over the little girl. It is still believed in the village that St. Peter himself came to protect the little orphan from the rain. Years go by and Veronika grows up to be a beautiful girl, who falls in love with a law student from Pest, Gyuri Wibra. Interestingly enough, Gyuri - known to be the illegitimate son of the rich Gregorics - inherits only an umbrella from his father...

This propaganda film from the early years of socialist transformation in Hungary depicts kulak sabotage in production cooperatives. The prosperous peasant Ignatz Hato, one of the best farmers in the village, joins the Two Octobers cooperative, and soon all the small peasants follow him. The village rich, led by Lili Sohar, watching the great expansion of the cooperative, try to break up the cooperators with each other. Sohar's attempt bears fruit and Hato leaves the cooperative. Next, Lili Sohar tries to convince Ignatz Hato that she is planning to create a rival team of new rich people and urges him to join her. Ignatz refuses and does not give in to the blackmail. Lili's lover, a former gendarme, shoots party secretary Bozhine. At the wounded Božine's bedside, Ignác admits his mistake and asks to be accepted back into the cooperative. Sándor, the president of the cooperative, realizes that the collective should not prevent those who want to work honestly from joining.

Dani, the few-month-old little boy born outside marriage is left by Eszter in the lap of her companion on the train. The widowed Aranka takes him willingly to her. The child is already ten years old and has a good life with Aranka. Then Géza enters their life and he does not welcome the child of someone else.

In May 1919 in a small rural town beside Salgótarján the local high society wants to get the power back with the leadership of dr. Máriáss, exploiting the outside attack launched against the Republic of Councils.

Following his wedding, Feri left the co-operative and is now working on the land of his father-in-law. Tóth is extremely wilful and thrifty, working from early morning to late night, pushing his family as well.

Three people – a returned prisoner of war, his beautiful second wife, and the possessive, hunchbacked spinster who is his sister-in-law by his first marriage – are isolated in a little house under an extinct volcano, where each strives for personal happiness but is suffocated by their dependence on the others.

The celebrated actor considers his wife a nitwits actress of a mediocre talent. But an influential playwright, a friend of theirs, has written a play with the main role designed for her, Kati, particularly. Its title is "The Most Intelligent Woman in the World". On the day of the first night performance Kati recalls their past, the times she had together with her husband.

The top management of the co-operative in the rural community at Lake Balaton goes on coaches everywhere to irritate Mrs. Peczöli, the snobbish wife of the only individual farmer. Peczöli would readily join the co-operative, should it not oppose his apple improving experiments.

Csutak is just a pain in the neck, the little boy is even excluded from play by his mates. Vacation is spent lonely until one day he sneaks the woman haulier's old, shabby horse, a creature that would be better off in a slaughterhouse, out with himself. Possessing the animal is the key to the children's gang. They all try to find a place for the horse.

The ancient families of Kont and Hadhazy have long been at war with each other. Lord Cont is a supporter of Vienna's rule, while Hadhazy is a follower of the Hungarian revolutionary Kossuth. Lord plans to fight Hadhazy at an approaching county meeting. Vicky, the beautiful and savvy daughter of Hadhazy's family, just before this, returns home from a Swiss boarding school for young girls, expelled because of her behavior. Vicky, dressed in a man's costume, goes to defend her father and with the honor of a nobleman fights the young scion of a family hostile to her. The young man's name is Feri Kont, and he mistakes the young man's introduction to Vicky for her brother Kalman Hadhazy. The political conflicts between the two families are mitigated by love complications. A misunderstanding at a county ball is brought to light, and the two warring camps are reconciled through the love of Vicky and Feri.

Kovalszky arrives at the Danube-Bank Hotel as a foreign gentleman. Two members of the staff, Miklós, the waiter and Anna, the house-maid are planning their life together. Kovalszky makes passes at Anna.

After World War II police forces increase the number of their permanent staff because of the corrupted general conditions. After a short instruction, recruits Sipos and Czöntör are also put into action against riotous groups, black-marketeers and burglars.

A young peasant boy stands up to tyranny, aided by his trusting friend- a goose.

The old, sickly Demeter Lapussa is a tyrant in the family. He forces his granddaughter, the beautiful Henriette, to marry baron Hátszegi, although the girl loves the penniless Vámhidy Szilárd. The two lovers attempt to commit suicide, then are torn away from each other.