Under
Socialism, the state controls the means of production—those would be capital,
natural resources and labor. That means your labor is not yours to control
grant or withhold as you might see fit. If you think that sounds like slavery,
the 700,000 Hungarians deported to Soviet work camps during the waning days of
WWII would certainly agree. It was a punishing
existence in the remote Donetsk coal mines, but Irén Walter finds a way to
survive and even start a new life worth living in Attila Szász’s Eternal Winter (trailer here), which screens
during the 2018 Heartland International Film Festival.
When
the Red Army arrived in Walter’s village, they claimed they were only
requisitioning labor for the maize harvest (naturally, they arrive during the
Christmas festivities and only chose women at least partly of German heritage).
However, it turns out they were really consigning the women to an unspecified
term of hard labor in the coal mines. If some prisoners could not endure the
toil, well that was just as well, because the guards make it ever so clear punishment
for Hungary is just as much a priority for the camp as producing coal for the
Soviet war effort.
Being
a clergyman’s daughter, Walter does her best to help the other women, but just
surviving on her own is a constant challenge. Fortuitously, she receives some unexpected
help from Rajmund Müller, one of the male prisoners who arrived earlier. Müller
is the camp scrounger, who keeps everyone supplied with hand-rolled cigarettes—for
a price. Initially, Walter does not return his romantic interest, in order to stay
faithful to a husband who has most likely been killed in action. Eventually,
the combination of Müller’s charm and her own survival imperative kick in.
Others certainly do worse things to survive—and both Walter and the film
forgive them too.
Sunset, the new film
from Son of Saul director Laszlo Nemes
was the obvious choice for Hungary to submit to the Oscars, but Winter might have been a competitive
dark horse candidate. It touches all the usual bases of films documenting
historical human rights abuses, but it is also surprisingly forthright in the
way addresses survival strategies. It is not what you might assume (stealing
food and the like), but rather a matter of giving up hope of any eventual return,
in order to reset your life in the camp at zero.
As
Walter, Marina Gera truly looks like she is dragged through Hell and back during
the course of the film. It is a brave performance, but it is quiet and natural
rather than flashy. Yet, it is Sándor Csányi who really lowers the emotional
boom as the roguish Müller. Even if it is partly born of necessity, their
romance is ultimately quite beautiful, in an exquisitely sad kind of way.
Just
when you think Walter and Müller might catch a break, the Communists throw them
another curve ball—one that will be especially ironic to contemporary viewers
who lived through the 1990s Balkan War and have followed the current refugee
controversies in Europe. Szász and Norbert Köbli’s screenplay, adapted from János
Havasi’s book, is smart, challenging, and heartbreaking. The former also has a
keen eye for framing dramatic shots, but Gergely Parádi’s heavy-handed score
does not match the rest of the film’s complexity (a minor flaw, at most). Very
highly recommended, Eternal Winter screens
this afternoon (10/13), Tuesday (10/16), and Friday (10/19), as part of this
year’s Heartland International Film Festival.