Plot
In 1919, Hungarian Communists aid the Bolsheviks' defeat of Czarists, the Whites. Near the Volga, a monastery and a field hospital are held by one side then the other. Captives are executed or sent running naked into the woods. Neither side has a plan, and characters the camera picks out soon die. A White Cossack officer kills a Hungarian and is executed by his own superiors when he tries to rape a milkmaid. At the hospital, White officers order nurses into the woods, dressed in finery, to waltz. A nurse aids the Reds, then they accuse her of treason for following White orders. Red soldiers walk willingly, singing, into an overwhelming force. War seems chaotic and arbitrary.
Written by
Gyula Hernádi, Giorgi Mdivani, Miklós Jancsó
Directed by
Miklós Jancsó
Crew
Production Countries
Soviet Union, Hungary
Production Companies
Mosfilm, Mafilm
Languages
Magyar
Awards
1 win & 2 nominations total