A Budapest Film release of a Hungaria Media & Sportmenedzsment production, in association with Hungarian Television, Duna TV. (International sales: Magyar Filmunio, Budapest.) Produced by Gabor Losonczi. Directed by Miklos Jancso. Screenplay, Jancso, Ferenc Grunwalsky, Gyula Hernadi.
With: Peter Scherer, Zoltan Mucsi, Judit Schell, Emese Vasvari, Attila Racz, Gyula Bodrogi, Andras Szirtes, Peter Halasz, Balazs Galko.
Miklos Jancso's everyman heroes Kapa and Pepe go the fifth round in "The Battle of Mohacs," the most accessible but also most underworked of the veteran helmer's cycle of comic-historical jottings. Though there's a slight sense of renewal in this latest entry, pic spends too much time getting to its most interesting idea and then wraps things up with unseemly speed. Scattered fest dates loom on strength of the 82-year-old helmer's rep.
Title refers to a famous battle in 1526 in which the Magyars, after the death of strong King Matyas, were thrashed by Turkish sultan Suleyman, had their country carved into three, and saw the middle part ruled by Turks for the next 150 years. Battle signified the end of Hungary as a significant independent power.
Jancso cheekily turns history on its head for a satire on Hungarian illusions -- still evoked by some modern-day nationalist pols -- of the country becoming a world-class player. Recruited by the professorial Kapa (Zoltan Mucsi), contempo cop Pepe (Peter Scherer) is whisked back to the Middle Ages in a Rube Goldberg contraption and the pair set about re-writing history, hypnotizing Suleyman into believing he never fought the battle of Mohacs.
As a result, Magyar power continues and Hungarian gradually becomes the world's lingua franca, up to the present day. Unfortunately this last idea, the smartest in the film, only appears over the horizon at the 60-minute point, after a lengthy medley of knockabout and verbal humor interspersed with traditional Jancso sequences of ethnic song and dance. Thereafter, the hasty wrap-up hardly gives time for the film to properly milk the concept's rich satirical possibilities.
Scherer and Mucsi have their characters under the skin by now, and ensemble playing is fine down the line. Pic contains a limited number of graceful, Jancso-like camera ballets, and musical interludes are bracing. Whole caboodle, incredibly, was lensed in only 15 days (helmer broke his arm during shooting and lost five days off the sked), but is none the worse for it. Limited f/x, including matte shots, are OK.
Camera (color), Grunwalsky; editor, Zsuzsa Csakany; music, Lyuhasz Lyacint, Honved Egyuttes, Balazs Bujtor Music, Andras Lovasi, Pal Kis; art director, Tamas Banovich; costume desinger, Zsuzsa Stenger; sound, Otto Olah, Judit Toth. Reviewed at Hungarian Film Week (non-competing), Budapest, Jan. 30, 2004. Running time: 81 MIN.
Contact Derek Elley at
derek.elley@variety.com
Date in print: Mon., Feb. 16, 2004