Plot

When Adam and Eve, having succumbed to Lucifer's temptation, are expelled from the Garden of Eden, Adam makes Lucifer keep his promise. Lucifer then grants Adam a dream of the world to come.

When Adam and Eve, having succumbed to Lucifer's temptation, are cast out of the Garden of Eden, Adam holds Lucifer to his promise, reminding him that "You said I would know everything!" So Lucifer grants Adam a dream of the world to come. And what a bizarre dream: Adam becomes Miltiades in Athens; a knight called Tancred in Byzantium; Kepler in Prague; Danton in revolutionary Paris; and a nameless suitor in Victorian London. Guided by a deceptively sweet but ultimately contemptuous Lucifer, Adam confronts an endless procession of the horror of the human story - rapists and concubines, betrayal and savagery, mindless cruelty and fanaticism.

Angyali üdvözlet, aka "The Annunciation", is a surreal account of the history of humanity as portrayed entirely by children between the ages of 8 and 12. The film begins with the biblical story as Adam (Péter Bocsor) and Eve (Júlia Mérö), are deceived by Lucifer (Eszter Gyalog) -- three very photogenic leads -- into tasting the "Forbidden Fruit". They are thus chased out of the Garden of Eden by the Angel of Death and, in a vision, sent on an existential journey through western European history.

Always followed closely and influenced by the deceptively sweet, but contemptuous Lucifer, we follow Adam through The Plague, wars, Byzantium's wretched cripples, the French Revolution, the squalor of Dickensian London, and a final return to the scene of the crucifixion. Of course the picture makes a case for its premise -- that of the consequences of Original Sin -- yet does so in a very unique way. In the closing scene, Lucifer says, "Why did I strive to achieve greatness in man, who is...in knowlege a pygmy, in blindness a giant?" This reflects the somewhat nihilistic view of a nation still under the boot of Soviet communism.

This rare movie may be one of the best (and only child-starred) art films ever.