Sándor Siménfalvy

Three short stories around the number 12. A postman, a taxi driver and a photo developer connected to 12 on different ways.

Feature film version of the 1971 series.

Tells of the tribulations of a middle-aged official of the Austro-Hungarian Bureau of Weights and Measures in fighting the local shopkeepers and traders whose weights are frequently light.

After the World War I, enthusiastic young people found the intellectual group of Hungarian Communist Party. Their aim is to propagate the communist ideology to the people and get the workers on their side. They have fierce discussions on the new ideas, though their movement is not very successful. They clash with their opposition, attempt to lead people to the Red Army, but without success.

Anika, the daughter of the Greek partisan refugee and the Hungarian medical student, Zoltán fall in passionate love. But Anika's mother wants her to marry a Greek, for she is very homesick and wants to go home. The under-age girl cannot protest.

Set during a turbulent era of disquiet, fear, persecution and terror, which permeates every corner of post-WWI Hungarian society. In 1919, after just a few months of communist rule the Hungarian Republic of Councils falls victim to a nationalist counter-revolution. Admiral Horthy, leader of the nationalist far right movement, becomes the self-proclaimed regent of Hungary, and assumes power as the legal Head of State. Soldiers of the short-lived Hungarian Red Army are now on the run from relentless secret policemen and patrol units of the nationalist Royal Gendarme. If caught, ex-Red Army soldiers are executed without mercy or proper trial. István Cserzi, a former soldier of the Red Army has fled to the Great Hungarian Plains and has taken refuge on a farm, which is run by two sympathetic women. Due to the generosity of these women and a former childhood pal...

The changing and turbulent history of Hungary is seen through the eyes of three men over a 30-year period in this somber drama. The three recall the highlights of their lives in flashbacks as they reminisce in the mid 1960s. The venerable trio begin their story in the 1930s, through World War II, and the decade beyond the communist invasion of 1956.

A crusading newspaper reporter covers the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. Initially critical of the communists, the feature later espouses the virtues of the social changes implemented since the invasion. The title refers to the period of time the reporter spent interviewing witnesses to the invasion.

Año 1863. Etienne Lantier, despedido de la compañía de ferrocarriles por estar implicado en actividades sindicales, consigue trabajo en una mina del norte de Francia. Encuentra alojamiento en casa de la familia Maheus, donde todos son mineros y cuya hija, Catalina, se rinde a sus encantos. El trabajo es duro, mal pagado y peligroso. Cuando se enteran los mineros de que se les va a rebajar el salario, liderados por Lantier, se rebelan. La compañía decide contratar a otros obreros en su lugar y las autoridades reprimen a los rebeldes sin miramiento alguno.

Félix, a somewhat clod-hopping young man, finds himself in the Grand Hotel of Little Lagonda, barefooted and in pyjamas. He is soon followed by a hooded, fat and leggy gangster. This is all the more strange as the hotel is under quarantine with the pretext of a plague-epidemic, in order to make it a suitable ground for the negotiations of certain oil-companies.

A comedy about the organisation of agricultural co-operatives. In the village of "Rendes", everybody has already entered the co-op, only the stubborn farmer, Bódog Balogh continues to resist. The leadership plays all their tricks and uses all their efforts, but all in vain.

Koncert is a 1962 Hungarian short film directed by István Szabó. In the film, several beach-goers have a go at playing creating an impromptu concert. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.

Gráci has been recently released from a reformatory school. His old gang would like to involve him in a new action, but he hesitates. His past record is bad enough already, and he would not like to get into new trouble.

Vetró János, the lorry driver, is an alcoholic. His marriage is in pieces, his wife has a lover. Their son suffers an accident. The next day his wife moves out. In his desperation, Vetró drinks even more, and leaves his work as well.

Daddy Kárász, the stakhanovist worker, complains in a television interview about the fact that his family, consisting of many members, cannot get a home on their own. Kéri, the chairman of the local authority, promises to help him on the condition that if he does not, they may move in to his villa at elegant Pasarét. Nothing happens, therefore the Kárász family takes Kéri by his word. From this time on, tumultuous scenes and frequent quarrels take place in the villa between the two families.

The spring of 1919. Karikás Frigyes reorganises brigade 39 at the Tisza. His most devoted soldiers are Korbély János and his followers, who remain faithful to the political commissioner under all circumstances.

The "sleepless years" in this propaganda piece by director Felix Marlassy occur on Csepel Island, an island south of Budapest that is home to an armaments factory. The factory workers are shown being exploited by imperialists, capitalists gone berserk, and fascists, more or less in that exact chronological sequence. The heavy-handed approach does much to undercut the belief that when socialism finally takes over, the lives of the workers are brought up to a human level. In this instance, audiences might prefer a more nuanced and subtle statement, no matter what the message.

Three people – a returned prisoner of war, his beautiful second wife, and the possessive, hunchbacked spinster who is his sister-in-law by his first marriage – are isolated in a little house under an extinct volcano, where each strives for personal happiness but is suffocated by their dependence on the others.

In the thirties, the poor living by the Romanian-Hungarian border, were forced to smuggling if they wanted to survive. Mihály, the Hungarian peasant, kills a border guard while fleeing. He is fed up with smuggling and wants to put an end to it, yet he needs money to get a job so he embarks on another turn.

Panni, coming from a landless family of ten and Miska have loved each other for a long time. The pretty Panni, however, has another suitor as well: Komáromi, the big farmer. The two men fight from time to time, but then, during the time Miska is serving his military duty, Panni marries Komáromi to end the tremendous squalor of her family.

In 1944, Feri Margittai escapes from the front, but his mother sends him away from home.

The flat of Doctor Bartha is wetting, the Communal Management Enterprise does not act, the doctor and his wife are at the edge of divorce. Géza would marry his colleague, Kató, but mum is sick, the apartment is small, no money. Uncle Károly is fed up with unsuitable, charlatan business managers. Vali would marry, in order not to live on Titi and Piri any more, but the selected man wants to have a woman with her own apartment. All of them have a chance by the lottery, especially by hitting twelve scores.

Laci Ács the two-time Olympic champion boxer suffers his first defeat on an international tour that his coach was heavily against. After a tough period he starts working hard to get back into the ring, win back the coach's trust and win his third gold at the Olympics. Starring real three-time Olympic gold medalist boxing legend László Papp.

Varsa engineer receives the Kossuth award for his excellent work. His career once began at the family enterprise of his wife, so the woman invites her relatives for a dinner party.

Buda is mastered by the Turks. Student Gábor and his companion flee a troop into the castle, just in the garden of Gül Baba. Gábor and Leila, the daughter of Gül Baba fall in love with each other. Ali pasha, who wants to marry the girl, has the two Hungarians caught in order to let them be executed.

Nagy István, the formerly poor peasant boy returns to his native village as a teacher. His conviction is that the abyss between rich and poor can be diminished by good will. The rich Böröcz Horváth Klári returns his love, and also Böröcz Horváth is willing to help the poorest family, the Bakos. Bakos Jóska, who was sent to serve the tough Böröcz Horváth as a payment, dies of an infected wound and the people in the village hold the teacher liable as well. Nagy István realises, that the abyss cannot be ceased, what is more, it is impassable. He breaks up with his fiancée and stands by the side of the poor.

In a rural scenery in the throes of difficult changes lives a humble but promising young farmer girl called Mari Pataki. Her father forbids her from seeing the man she loves. The father, above all preoccupied by work on the fields and prospective wealth, decides to give his daughter in marriage to an old but rich man with whom he does business. Land marries land, he says. This seems to be the unyielding rule of the Hungarian peasantry. But the young lover is ready to stand up to any challenge to keep Maris love.

At Christmas Eve in 1944 the runaway Pintér and Gozsó get through the Soviet blockade around Budapest. Pintér intends to hide in a flat abandoned by his own relatives, but he finds his relatives called the Turnovszkys, who are hiding the Jewish Jutka as well. Love unfolds between Zoltán and Jutka.

The top management of the co-operative in the rural community at Lake Balaton goes on coaches everywhere to irritate Mrs. Peczöli, the snobbish wife of the only individual farmer. Peczöli would readily join the co-operative, should it not oppose his apple improving experiments.

September 1952 in a mine in Northern-Hungary after an explosion water breaks in from the neighbouring shaft and fourteen miners become trapped. The whole country unites to save them.

On the Spring of 1945 the Jackson circus is heading towards the border with the clown Peti and Aida, the elephant. They have to play for the Hungarian Fascists, while Peti is hiding the Jew Annuska and Sanyika.

In May 1919 in a small rural town beside Salgótarján the local high society wants to get the power back with the leadership of dr. Máriáss, exploiting the outside attack launched against the Republic of Councils.

Vörös Hajnal (Red Dawn), a co-operative is the venue of skylarking, while the storm destroys the wheat which is to be harvested soon. Árendás, a middle-peasant, voices severe accusations against members of the co-operative: out of negligence, they failed to keep the ditches clean. It is always the soft option they seem to favour, while the necessity of properly taking care of the farmlands is long-forgotten. Members of the co-operative and the village people are deeply divided.