András Kovács

Gráci has been recently released from a reformatory school. His old gang would like to involve him in a new action, but he hesitates. His past record is bad enough already, and he would not like to get into new trouble.

The film is a true account of the drama of "non-action" on 14th and 15th of October, 1944. The Nazis, having a straightforward program, occupy Hungary with little or no difficulty, as the Hungarian political leadership had no unambiguous program for responding to possible steps of the Nazis. In spite of the secretly signed cease-fire agreement and proclamation, Horty gives up all plans of resistance at the news of the kidnapping of his son. The Nazis take over power and roll up the so-called conspiracy aimed at Hungary's breaking away from the German alliance.

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.

1985. Hungary has elections for the first time since long where more than one candidate is allowed to run. The engineer Bodnár is the most popular man in the rural town, who has defended the microclimate of the neighbourhood against a harmful project. Before the elections he is also put on the list. Local power launches a fight against him,

The film director starts shooting his film about the manager of a large corporation who committed suicide for mysterious reasons. As the cumbersome process of making a film goes along, everybody involved in it starts having differing opinions of the tragedy, its causes and its victim.

The engineer Ambrus has been suspended in his job because he publicly called the attention of the customers to a construction mistake of some goods designed to be exported. His immediate boss learns the news on a business trip to Paris. He meets his old friend Lendvay, an emigrant from Hungary, and his French wife in a cellar bar. After their talk Benkő starts seeing things in a different perspective. When he returns home, he decides to take a stand for Ambrus against Ferenczi, the general director, despite his wife's and the old director's advice.

In 1950, when a young communist director arrives to take charge of a stud farm near the Hungarian borders, his efforts to draw on the experience of the old hands there meet with little success. Janit Busó is not accepted by the farm workers, who were exiled here and branded as class enemies. Busó tries to gain authority, which is not easy among these proud, resentful people who are skilled in their profession. In his difficult situation, the dubious support he receives from the party does more harm than good.

Documentary film.