Two Stories from the Recent Past

Károly Makk strings together two novellas by Tibor Déry. A téglafal mögött is set in the early 1950s. Comrade Bódi, an embittered party worker, reports his fellow workers who are stealing ‘the assets of the people’ from the factory. During the subsequent public investigation, one of them commits suicide. The camera of Makk tells the story of the period through the crumpled face of Jozef Króner, the blank, hopeless stare of Mari Törőcsik and images of a decaying factory site. In Philemon és Baucis, like in Szerelem, the subject of ageing is tied to the traumas of the 1950s. History turns the idyllic private life of an elderly couple (Elma Bulla and Antal Páger) upside down. The 1956 uprising sweeps an injured fighter their way. The old man helps as best he can while his wife desperately tries to save her husband…

Directed by Károly Makk, Two Stories from the Recent Past leans on a strong ensemble — István Avar, Mari Törőcsik, Elma Bulla — to carry a story that balances spectacle with character.

The film landed with audiences for its craft and performances, and remains one of the most talked-about drama titles of 1979.