Akik maradtak

This is a story of two survivors of the Holocaust: a middle aged doctor, Aladar, and a 16-year-old girl, Klara, who were total strangers to each other. While losing their loved ones and still suffering, they meet and start a father-daughter like relationship which some see as peculiar. But this relationship soon becomes special, and eventually heals their scars within. Although this movie is about people's recovery from the traumatic experiences of war, I saw it as a platonic love story of two lost souls. Sadness is always in Aladar's eyes and Klara often wakes up screaming from a nightmare. The inner scars of the two are so deep that they can't even express their grief properly. So seeing them cuddling close together, gradually restoring their lives was heart-warming to see. A very subtle yet very moving film.

While many holocaust survivors openly express rage and uncontrolled bitterness towards their persecutors, other survivors display only an emotional deadness and a pervasive feeling of being alone and scared. In the movie "Fateless," Gyuri, a young man sent to Buchenwald, moves from a childlike innocence to world-weariness in the span of one year. When he comes home, he feels more alone than he did at the camp and even expresses a sort of homesickness for the camaraderie he felt. As a disfigured Holocaust survivor in Christian Petzold's "Phoenix," Nina Hoss' shattered look, repressed emotions, and shaky voice feel so natural that her gradual awakening to life epitomizes a Phoenix rising from the ashes.

Hungary's entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2019 Academy Awards, Barnabás Tóth's ("Camembert Rose") Those Who Remained (Akik maradtak) asks us to rethink our idea of what liberation meant to those just released from the camps. Based on the 2004 novel of the same name by Zsuzsa F. Varkonyi and set in Budapest between 1948 and 1953, the suffering of the Holocaust years are deeply etched on the face of Doctor Aládar (Aldo) Körner (Károly Hajduk, "One Day"), a slender, gaunt man of about forty who is going through the motions of his Ob-Gyn practice at a Budapest hospital, but the look in his eyes cannot hide the trauma of his wife's death and that of his two young boys.

Coming from the Israelite Community Orphanage, Klára (Abigél Szõke, "X - The eXploited"), a mature-looking 16-year-old girl, sees Dr. Körner, for a gynecological exam to find out why her puberty has come so late. At first, angry, fearful, and wound into a tight knot, when she reaches out and suddenly embraces the doctor, it is clear that she is seeking more than an exam but a respite from her desperate loneliness. Outspoken in her disdain for her classmates at school and her great-aunt Olgi (Mari Nagy, "Budapest Noir") with whom she lives, Klára only begins to reveal her repressed humanity when Aldo responds to her like a fellow human being in pain, not a wounded animal.

Bringing the film to life with her tremendously affecting performance, Szõke refuses to return to Olgi even though she loves her and wants her to be happy. Instead, she moves in with Aldo who acts as a foster father, sharing custody with her aunt. He makes the rules, however, and is strict about physical contact, especially when she crawls into bed with him at night. Gradually, both open up though to each other. They talk about God, her parents, the sister she feels guilty about not being able to save from death, and, in a tender scene, he shares with her his photo album from before the war.

Though Aldo strictly adheres to the rules of propriety, their developing relationship raises some eyebrows, and the interest of Soviet operatives. Amidst talk of a Soviet crackdown on personal freedoms, Aldo and Klára do their best to be discreet, but it does not prevent others from gossiping. In one instance, after being seen in a park laying her head on Aldo's lap, Klára is defiant when interrogated by a Communist official. Similarly, Pista (Andor Lukáts, "The Whiskey Bandit"), Aldo's colleague at work, says that people have disappeared during the night and tells him that he has joined the Communist Party and has been asked to inform on him.

Those Who Remained is an intimate look at two damaged souls who have been bruised and shaken by life but are now ready to begin the reconstruction of their life, a process which will, in Percy Bysshe Shelley's phrase "lift the veil from the hidden beauty of the world." Knowing that any expression of the love they feel for each other will push the boundaries of what is considered acceptable, both realize that their protestations of innocence will not be enough to keep them safe, and that they must now reach out to others, bringing solace and joy in a world in dire need of both.

Deeply touched me. I cant sleep this night. This man and young women were so good, maybe the best acting in hungarian movie ever. The story is very sad, but full with real emotions, real life.

A wellplayed touching film. Good acting, Good subject, Good shooting. Recommended.

Saw it on premiere on september 24 at Budapest's Corvin Mozi.

Probably the most essential thing to know about this movie is that it was made for television in the first place and later they considered pushing it into the Oscars, for big screens, as they thought it has the potential to win something. It probably has that potential but I don't think that it would be because the movie is that good... maybe for the acting as it was quite strong from the two main protagonists, or for the screenplay. Oh and for the music, that is indeed Oscar-worthy for today's standards. But if for anything other than that... well, then I would smell something fishinness behind that.

So as a TV movie this picture is far better than great. It has a distinctive visual atmosphere with its gray fuminess and late, cold autumny colors, the cinematography is beyond adequate for such TV movie norma, the world the story plays in is really authentic, beholds many details that reflects those old times. The dialouges are clevelry written, they behold the realism but also some theatrical factor for dramatic purposes. The acting is top-notch from the main protagonists, they bring well detailed characteristics into their relationship by which we really hold their connection close to our hearts, but overall all the cast did a good job. The soundtrack has probably the most appeal for an award as it has that really almost-but-not-yet cheesiness that can easily win your ears over, but overall a very pleasant music to listen to, reminded me of Clint Mansell's previous works.

What the whole movie might fall short on is the world building that plays in the post-war dictaturic times. There are some snipets about the oppression they maintained on all these people lived in the post-war city, however, other than having some tricky questions from the "comrades" it never went further than that, it didn't fully bring the overall alienating effect it should have for the story/narrative. It was kinda like only a world building element in order to remind the auidence what times this plays in, never fully did anything more than that. And probably, the ending, which refers onto this dictature didn't feel that cathartic, because of that "only-world-building-element" reason.

Talking with others on premiere some people found the whole fast paced evolution of the protagoninst's relationship unconvincing and out of place, that it needed much deeper, elaborative, slower tendencies to go through. Personaly I had no issue with it at all. I found the relationship really natural and organic in its own way, it was indeed a connection that is not that easily achievable by anyone, but these two somehow had the luck to have a mostly healthy relationship that helped both of them in some ways to heal all the scars the war times brought onto them.

So... basicly, that's all I got to say about this movie. From TV movie standpoints I found it really solidly done, a nicely put together motion picture that is pleasant to watch. For Oscar worthy theatrical experience it might fall behind a bit as it has some lack of details and elaboratness, so - even though I have no respect for Oscars nowadays - I kinda feel this movie has only oscar-worthiness on a few, specific fields and even there there is always much bigger fishes to fight against on awards like this. Again, if it wins any award other than the music, acting, or (maybe) for screenplay then there is something fishy back there in Hollywood (but it's Hollywood, the Oscars, so there is more dirty business than anything else today).

Rating: 6.8/10