Skip to footer

'1945' is a compact study of wartime guilt

( Unrated ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

As a Hungarian village prepares for a wedding after V-E Day, two strangers arrive.

|
Courtesy of Lenke Szilagyi/Menemsha Films
The Stationmaster (Istv‡n Znamen‡k) and Suba Mih‡ly (Mikl—s B. SzŽkely) prepare to take their mysterious Jewish visitors into town in the film, '1945'.
  • By Peter Rainer Film critic

Movies shot in black and white, especially in the modern era, are often described as “stark,” but there’s no other way to characterize the visuals in the marvelous Hungarian movie “1945.” The look of the film perfectly emblematizes the story. Set a few months after V-E Day, it takes place in a single summer afternoon in a small village. The gruff local notary and pharmacy owner (Péter Rudolf) is preparing for the wedding of his son (Bence Tasnádi) to the stunning beauty Kisrózsi (Dóra Sztarenki), who still has eyes for a burly returning soldier (Tamás Szabó Kimmel).

Into this tightknit cauldron of fear and wariness stride two mysterious Orthodox Jews, a bearded older man (Iván Angelusz) and his son (Marcell Nagy), both dressed in black and transporting a bulky trunk containing something that is only revealed at the end of the film. What brings these silent, grim-faced men to the village? The reigning theory is that they have returned to reclaim property stolen from them by some of the selfsame villagers who gave them up to the Nazis.

As the paranoia expands, the town’s central inhabitants are revealed in all their naked apprehension. It’s a good bet that the director had “High Noon” in mind when he made this film, but the comparison ends there. As a compact study of wartime guilt, the film has the look and feel of a waking nightmare. Grade: A- (This movie is not rated.)  

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to '1945' is a compact study of wartime guilt
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2017/1208/1945-is-a-compact-study-of-wartime-guilt
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe