“…Again, on the surface this sounds like a narrative that would gain Soviet approval; discrediting as it does free enterprise and Nagy’s reforms on farming, whilst placing the co-operative worker at the forefront of the drama as its romantic hero. But there’s much more going on in Fábri’s movie that may have not registered in the Soviet censor’s mind. Máté is a deeply passionate proponent of co-operative farming, but his ire is often directed at his fellow farmers, who he finds incompetent and lazy – a world away from the strong-armed worker heroes that propaganda usually depicted. István may be the villain of the piece for his opposition to the romance between his daughter and Máté, but this feels like a metaphor for the hardships and lack of freedoms faced by Hungarians under the Soviet regime – under a dictatorship can you even be free to love the person your heart desires?…”
Read my full review at The Geek Show
The Penny University 