Örök tél

Extraordinary and good if rather chilling film. Beautifully acted and it's one of those films you must stick with to get the real benefit. The last half and hour is compelling.

Internationally, this movie is know under the name "Eternal Winter". And on first face, you might think this is not a movie about WW2. But it is. And a relevant one. This movie is based on true events and starts in December 1944. It hows how the russian troops raped and enslaved women - especially the large group of ethnic germans (the so-called Danube Swabians) living in Hungary - from the countries that they occupied. Slave labor to support the war effort. And all in agreement with the other allied countries through Churchill and Roosevelt. Women were first transported in trains carts - originally meant for animal transport - and put in siberian gulags (concentration camps) to work in coal mines under terrible conditions.

So the countries in east europe that were so-called "liberated" by the allied soviet forces, were actually faced with terror. Terror that is very well displayed in this movie. The acting is thereby pretty decent and also the scenes look convincing as taking place during the mid 1940's.

Overall, I score this movie with 7.0/10, resulting in a 7-star IMDb score. It very well shows the horrors some people experienced after the soviet forces liberated them from the Nazi regime.

A fine addition to the War Drama category from Hungary portraying atrocities of World War II this time focusing on forced encamping and ruthless handling of women of Hungary by Gulag forces of Soviet Union in harsh winters for many years. The movie follows Irén (Marina Gera) with other innocent females who are transported two thousand kilometers away from their homes for forced labor.

It was quite shocking to note that the forced labor and persecution of internees including hundreds of thousands of Hungarians remained in force with the agreement and consent of other world powers at that time, which continued even when the war was over.

The acting performances and cinematography are good, but the ending sequence respecting lead roles is not logical, which could have been avoided in such a fine movie.

ETERNAL WINTER (Orok Tel) is the second war related Hungarian movie i watched after GLOOMY SUNDAY (1999). Both gave me tears after watching. Movie shows the true history, in 1944-45 approximately 700,000 Hungarian men & women were taken to forced labour by the orders of Stalin, 300,000 of them never returned home. A MUST WATCH

One of the best, if not the best, movie about the Gulag there is out there. Must see this. Gorgeous, real, and heartbreaking cinematography and acting. This movie will fill your life and heart with what it means to be human. Don't miss this movie!