barry_bacsi

Once again, Róbert Koltai shows up on both sides of the camera in a Hungarian period piece. This is a bittersweet story of the lives of twin brothers (Dodó and Naftalin) who are born to a circus clown in Hungary in 1903. The story quickly moves through the next five decades, briefly charting the major events that shape the lives of the brothers. The most crucial of these events involves an unfortunate accident in 1953 featuring a watch belonging to the chairman of the Hungarian Communist party. Although the fault was essentially Naftalin's, his older twin takes the blame for it and is sent to prison as a political prisoner. We then fast-forward to 1956 where the story-proper begins. Naftalin realises that the revolution in Hungary is the perfect opportunity for him to save his brother...

Koltai maybe overdoes the childishness of his character (again), but surprisingly Gáspár is more grown-up, as befits his role as the older of the two brothers (albeit by only a few minutes). Orsolya Tóth is positively radiant as Pipitér - the young woman who joins Naftalin on his journey across Hungary, and the other cast members do a good job - although it's strange to see Jiri Menzel turning up in another Hungarian film (and why so badly dubbed?). Also, though Janos Kulka is good as always, his English simply isn't good enough to carry off the role of an American diplomat... András Dés (who composed the soundtrack) shows up in a bit part as the piano player in the bar in Budapest. All-in-all, I enjoyed the film despite its little niggles, and, though it's not up to the standard of the excellent "Sose Halunk Meg", I would recommend it to any fan of Koltai's previous work.