Katalin Berek

István, a király ("Stephen, the King") is a Hungarian rock opera written by Levente Szörényi (music) and János Bródy (lyrics), based on the life of Saint Stephen of Hungary. The storyline was based on the play Ezredforduló (Turn of the Millennium) by Miklós Boldizsár, who co-wrote the libretto. The opera was first staged in 1983 on an open-air stage in Budapest. This first performance was also made into a 1984 film, directed by Gábor Koltay, and its music released on an album. The musical became a smash hit and is still very popular in Hungary and among Hungarian minorities in neighboring countries.

The film is a lyrical series of associations compiled from documentaries. Márkus, the actor is shut in his own flat by his wife by accident. While learning his part, on the wings of poetic intuition his imagination tours the great landscapes of the soul, the mystery of human existence.

A aldeã Juli Kovács chega à cidade para trabalhar em uma fábrica. O supervisor János Bodnár fica de olho nela, que inicialmente recusa os seus avanços.

Operária fabril solteira, Kata, 43, quer ter uma criança com o seu amante secreto de há muito tempo, um homem casado chamado Joska. Ele não gosta da ideia. Kata faz amizade com a adolescente Anna, abandonada por seus pais aos seis anos de idade. Anna foge da casa de acolhimento e muda-se para casa de Kata para que ela possa continuara estar com o namorado Sanyi. Kata vai ver os pais de Anna e persuade-os a dar aos jovens amantes permissão para casar. Através de Anna, Kata torna-se interessada em crianças negligenciadas e decide adotar um bebê da casa de acolhimento.

An aspiring film student is denied a scholarship to the state-funded university when his father is thrown in jail. The man had stopped a train in order to facilitate the union between two old friends. The son then takes a job as a land surveyor and meets a Greek man who works towards the collective benefits of the peasants. The man is killed in a peasant uprising prompted by a bureaucratic boondoggle. The surveyor looks after the man's widow as his emerging political and social awareness leads him take a stand against government injustice. Another incident, in which gypsies are rounded up by state hygiene workers, further galvanizes the man's beliefs. He photographs the incident, and his work allows him to be accepted into the school from which he was previously denied admission.

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.

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.

Marci is drafted from a typical block building in the 6th district in Pest. He says good-bye to Juli living in the same house, with whom they are both very much fond of each other, but neither of them makes a confession. Juli works in a factory, and with her friend Gizus she goes out in the evening for dancing and drinking. After a year, Marci comes back for holiday, he is full of love.

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.

Kis Katalin and Varga Jóska are getting married. During their honeymoon they are preparing plans for the future. Katalin, however, seems to lag behind both in her studies and the work competition, becoming a couch potato version of a wife. Jóska, instead of trying to help, does nothing else than his work.