Cinema
Hortobágy
Georg Höllering · 1936
Synopsis
In the Hortobágy puszta, a family of horse herders lives to the rhythm of the herds and the seasons. Young Jancsika refuses the csikós's whip and turns to modern machines; his sister Juliska, for her part, is pushed by a stern father towards a marriage of convenience. Around them, the film lingers at length on the animals, the gestures of the trade and the light of the plain.
Context
The cinematographer László Schäffer had recommended the puszta to Höllering, who began shooting there in the summer of 1934, at first in the spirit of a documentary; Zsigmond Móricz then wrote, from these images, the story Komor Ló, which the director simplified to the point of falling out with him. László Lajtha composed the music from folk songs, and the roles are played by real csikós and local people. Hungarian censorship had eleven per cent of the film cut; the film was shown in London by the Film Society in December 1936, and in Budapest on 18 March 1937.
Who it is for
Eighty-two minutes in which the story counts for less than the herds, the work and the sky; no French release has been located.
Prizes and reception
Attacked on its release in Hungary, praised in London by Graham Greene, and regarded ever since as a precursor of Hungarian realist cinema.
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