With a nascent anti-semitism now spreading throughout Europe, some may regard films such as Hungarian director Ferenc Török's post-Holocaust drama, "1945," as a valuable corrective to the flippant denialism concocted by those who once again seek to harm the Jewish people and deny their birthright. For those who know little about the Holocaust, a simplistic film such as this might be considered a rather worthy introduction to the enormity of the subject--a primer of sorts for a novitiate. But unfortunately a primer is not what's needed to introduce a narrative that encompasses a multiplicity of events that perhaps represent the greatest catastrophe in world history.
1945 is based on a short story by Gábor T. Szántó, a Jewish writer, who seeks verisimilitude of character through parable. His protagonists, the Samuels, two Orthodox Jews, an older Jewish man and his son, arrive in a small Hungarian town approximately three months after the Germans have been defeated and the occupying Soviet Army is only beginning to exert their influence over a hostile and indifferent populace.
The Samuels arrive at the train station carrying crates listed on the manifest containing perfumes and other sundry items. They enlist two locals to transport their possessions via a horse drawn cart, walking behind the cart through the town to the chagrin of the townspeople, worried that they've come to seek recompense for properties confiscated from the Pollaks, the most prominent pre-War Jewish family, presumably murdered in the Holocaust.
Unfortunately, the Jewish people here are no more than symbols of victimhood--mere props to explore the reactions of the townspeople and expose their chicanery and deceit.
Szanto's townspeople are a bad lot indeed and he's unable to introduce any "shades of gray" that might humanize his antagonists to make them a little more sympathetic and not so perfidious.
The main culprit is Istvan (Peter Rudolf), the town clerk who bullied Bandi, the town drunk, into accusing the Pollak family of imaginary crimes before the war, leading to their deportation and confiscation of their property (the home went to Bandi and his wife and a convenience store was signed over to Istvan's ungrateful son, who hates him). Also in the mix is Istvan's opiate-addicted wife who shares the son's contempt for the father.
As the Samuels slowly proceed with their procession through town, Istvan's son's wedding is about to fall apart. The son can no longer accept Istvan's plan to set up him up as a well-off bourgeois, via the ill-gotten gains of a convenience store that never belonged to the family. Meanwhile, his fiancée still has the hots for Jansci, a ne'er-do-well who earns the contempt of his neighbors by sucking up to Soviet soldiers.
It's all very predictable when Bandi hangs himself over his guilt for aiding Istvan and his plan to misappropriate the Jewish family's property. When Istvan son's fiancée burns down the convenience store, his neighbors (congregating at church), refuse to help him.
There are very few redeeming qualities here for the greedy townspeople, and only the saintly Jews are cast in a favorable light. The townspeople receive a further comeuppance when it's revealed that the Samuels only came to "bury" the belongings of their deceased loved ones who hailed from the town and died in the Holocaust.
1945 has some nice cinematography which highlights the perfidy of those who mistreated their Jewish neighbors before the onset of the war. It's a well-meaning story and makes the important point (albeit an obvious one), that the Jews were victims not only of the Nazis but their neighbors, who financially profited at their expense. Nonetheless, 1945 is a bit of a cheap shot as the antagonists are not really fleshed out, convincing or sympathetic enough as people guilty of contemptuous acts but also caught up in the cauldron of war and its debilitating aftermath.
1945 is based on a short story by Gábor T. Szántó, a Jewish writer, who seeks verisimilitude of character through parable. His protagonists, the Samuels, two Orthodox Jews, an older Jewish man and his son, arrive in a small Hungarian town approximately three months after the Germans have been defeated and the occupying Soviet Army is only beginning to exert their influence over a hostile and indifferent populace.
The Samuels arrive at the train station carrying crates listed on the manifest containing perfumes and other sundry items. They enlist two locals to transport their possessions via a horse drawn cart, walking behind the cart through the town to the chagrin of the townspeople, worried that they've come to seek recompense for properties confiscated from the Pollaks, the most prominent pre-War Jewish family, presumably murdered in the Holocaust.
Unfortunately, the Jewish people here are no more than symbols of victimhood--mere props to explore the reactions of the townspeople and expose their chicanery and deceit.
Szanto's townspeople are a bad lot indeed and he's unable to introduce any "shades of gray" that might humanize his antagonists to make them a little more sympathetic and not so perfidious.
The main culprit is Istvan (Peter Rudolf), the town clerk who bullied Bandi, the town drunk, into accusing the Pollak family of imaginary crimes before the war, leading to their deportation and confiscation of their property (the home went to Bandi and his wife and a convenience store was signed over to Istvan's ungrateful son, who hates him). Also in the mix is Istvan's opiate-addicted wife who shares the son's contempt for the father.
As the Samuels slowly proceed with their procession through town, Istvan's son's wedding is about to fall apart. The son can no longer accept Istvan's plan to set up him up as a well-off bourgeois, via the ill-gotten gains of a convenience store that never belonged to the family. Meanwhile, his fiancée still has the hots for Jansci, a ne'er-do-well who earns the contempt of his neighbors by sucking up to Soviet soldiers.
It's all very predictable when Bandi hangs himself over his guilt for aiding Istvan and his plan to misappropriate the Jewish family's property. When Istvan son's fiancée burns down the convenience store, his neighbors (congregating at church), refuse to help him.
There are very few redeeming qualities here for the greedy townspeople, and only the saintly Jews are cast in a favorable light. The townspeople receive a further comeuppance when it's revealed that the Samuels only came to "bury" the belongings of their deceased loved ones who hailed from the town and died in the Holocaust.
1945 has some nice cinematography which highlights the perfidy of those who mistreated their Jewish neighbors before the onset of the war. It's a well-meaning story and makes the important point (albeit an obvious one), that the Jews were victims not only of the Nazis but their neighbors, who financially profited at their expense. Nonetheless, 1945 is a bit of a cheap shot as the antagonists are not really fleshed out, convincing or sympathetic enough as people guilty of contemptuous acts but also caught up in the cauldron of war and its debilitating aftermath.