Venczel Vera

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

Zsolt Mohai, an eccentric shop window decorator in his 40s, drops by Anna Parádi on his wedding day, asking her to phone his bride Klára Horváth and call off the event. Drama, discussions and musical numbers ensue over topics like romance, loyalty, ambition, and settling for a family life in a modern day city.

Young Petőfi Zoltán the son of the great Hungarian poet, Petőfi Sándor, feels as though he were a stranger in the house of his mother and stepfather. Off he goes, finding work in Debrecen, where his theatrical and literary career and love all seem to be on their way.

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 1918, Fábián Bálint is forced to kill on the Italian front. At home, his sons drown the priest, the lover of their mother, in the river Kraszna, an action that drives her insane. Following his return home, Bálint becomes the liveried coachman of the baron.

In the summer of 1938, a month after the annexation of Austria and a year before the outbreak of war, the world's diplomats gather for a Refugee Conference in Evian, Switzerland. Here the Nazis send the highly respected Professor Benda, whose task it is to convince the diplomats to buy the lives of half a million Jews from Germany for ten million dollars. But no one, not even the Jewish representatives, can be convinced that the truly diabolical deal - the Germans would use the money to arm themselves - is the only chance to save human lives... The author of the original piece, Hans Habe, himself attended the conference as a young journalist. In his novel, written a quarter of a century later, he explores the world's responsibility.