1945
Holocaust
Survivors Return to Hungarian Hometown in Poignant Postwar Drama
It is
August 12, 1945. Japan is reeling and on the verge of surrender in
the wake of atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With
Germany having surrendered to the Allies back in the spring, Europe is
already in postwar mode, though not exactly at peace, as we are about
to learn.
For,
this bright, summer day is when Samuel Hermann
(Ivan Angelus) and his son (Marcell Nagy) disembark from a train that
has just rolled into their rural Hungarian hometown. Oddly, their
arrival doesn't inspire the locals to celebrate the fact that a
couple of their Jewish neighbors carted away by the Nazis had
miraculously survived the Holocaust.
Instead,
the easily identifiable Orthodox pair are greeted with suspicion,
because their property had long since been appropriated by somebody
in the tight-knit town. So, as they load their luggage onto a
horse-drawn-carriage, the village notary (Peter Rudolf) directs the
driver (Miklos B. Szekely) to go very slowly.
The
delay buys him the time to ride ahead and thereby serve as a
latter-day Paul Revere to the rest of the community, warning,
"They're here! Jews are back!" Among his ports-of-call is
the drugstore the Hermanns had been forced to leave behind which is
now in his own son's (Bence Tasnadi) hands.
That
is the compelling point of departure of 1945, one of the most
intriguing Holocaust dramas to come along in years. After all, it
addresses a question generally swept under the rug by historians,
namely, what kind of reception awaited concentration camp internees
who opted to repatriate rather than emigrate to Israel.
Directed
by Ferenc Torok (Moscow Square), the film is based on "Homecoming,"
a short story by Gabor T. Szanto. The picture was shot in black &
white, which serves to amplify the solemnity of the Hermanns as they
walk in silence behind the deliberately-paced buggy.
Their
dignified behavior cuts such a sharp contrast with that of the
suddenly-alarmed citizens, most of whom respond by closing ranks and
wondering how many other "interlopers" might soon assert
claims to land they'd taken title to legally.
A
powerful parable of Biblical proportions, illustrating both man's
inhumanity to man, as well as his capacity to forgive, if not
necessarily to forget.
Unrated
In Black & White
In Hungarian and Russian with subtitles
Running time: 91 minutes
Production Studio: Katapult Film
Distributor: Menemsha Films
To see a trailer for 1945, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCg3jVRX85A
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