Revolution's refugees, a blackmailing carpenter, and Stalin's ghost walk into a Yugoslav farm.
In November 1956, many people fled to Tito in Yugoslavia and were confronted with socialism, which they called "man-faced". The film's heroes find temporary refuge on a Bunyevac farmer's farm and await their fate there, as well as in nearby Subotica, in a long-simmering family and social environment, under the supervision of local internal security officers. One of them, a participant in the 1942 massacre in Baška, later a carpenter, now posing as a revolutionary, tries to blackmail his host with old memories. A naive young man of faith tries to clear up the gendarme's past, his son, a Stalinist, and his role in the revolution, as does the penitent intellectual.
Acting
Attila Magyar's suppressed rage as the blackmailed host.
Direction
Viček traps characters in claustrophobic rural spaces.
Writing
Dialogue where every word carries political weight.
Director
Karolj Viček
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 'man-faced socialism' phrase references 1956 Hungarian refugees' disillusionment with Yugoslav Titoism.
Karolj Viček himself fled Yugoslavia for Hungary; the film inverts typical refugee narratives.
HU
