A tanú

I'm 29, live in Hungary, but only have seen this movie yesterday. I think, something was missing from my overall general knowledge of us.

The change to freedom from the socialist-communist regime was in 1989, 17 years ago (as of 2006), but all these experiences are so alive in today's people. Especially in the middle age (40-60 year old) generation lived through that time and their mind is vividly remembering. Sentences like the "The situation is intensifying!" (A helyzet fokozódik!), "Life is not a whipped-cream cake!" (Az élet nem habostorta.) are very common to hear. I remember my high school teachers using these phrases very often.

There's even a magazine called Magyar Narancs (Hungarian Orange) - I just didn't know why it is called orange until yesterday. I guess Fidesz, one of the current leader political parties (right wing), has it's color orange because they were related to this magazine during their early times.

There are a lot of elements in the film that are not explained, but everybody knows here. The black car arrived to take someone, to call each other Comrade (this was the natural way to address to others), to eat "tarhonya" again and again.

I just can't understand how this movie could be filmed and then released before 1989 and how the producers didn't finish up in a prison.

Another thing I liked how Pelikan lives his life. When it's time for joy, he is happy, when is time to move on, he moves on, he takes life as it comes. Going with the flow in the sense of Buddhists. He knows who he is, what he is capable of and lives true to his own values. And so he is living what life brings in front of him and happy with that.

This is a wonderful movie and is a must to understand daily life in Hungary. So, just rent it and watch it! 10/10

I rank this with "Dr. Strangelove" as one of the funniest political satires I have ever seen. I saw it about 18 years ago at the Mill Valley Film Festival in Marin County, California. I am not Hungarian and have never lived under communism, yet I laughed out of recognition at Peter Bocso's critique of a system so involved with policing itself against imaginary reactionaries that it stops taking care of practical business. The hero is an everyman in charge of flood control at a dam. He is taken to the capital to be a witness in a show trial. Meanwhile, who is minding the dam? While he waits for the court to call on him, the star witness is given a series of do-nothing jobs for which he would not be qualified even if they weren't bogus. The funniest involves supervising the development of the first Hungarian orange (Magyar naranz?) which actually turns out to be a lemon. Is it politically incorrect to call a lemon "a lemon"?

This movie did what the other Hungarians couldn't: Really enjoyable and makes the Hungarian '50-s era understandable even for foreigners who have never lived under communist regime. No need to say more.

Well, OK. Just because of the commenting rules.

This movie is full of unforgettable characters. Comrade Virág and the old logopedist lady are my favorites. This aspect is one of the many strong points of the Tanú. And so on, the play of the actors, the sentences and termini technici which became part of the national culture, the great atmosphere, the unique sense of humor made this movie a masterpiece. After more then 20 times of watching, it still can't become boring.

One of my favorite movies, unfortunately nothing has changed since the 60's, the only difference is that now we call it modern democracy.

The saddest and funniest thing, it is actually NOT a satire...