Hungary, 1 9 4 9. Jozsef Pelikan, a Danube dike-reeve and father of 8 children, slaughters a pig in his home basement to prepare meat. However, since that is illegal, a witness snitches him to the Communist authorities who arrive at Jozsef's home and arrest him. Surprisingly, he is released by Communist official Virag who is suspiciously helpful towards him. Virag finds Jozsef new jobs as a swimming pool director or amusement park manager, but each time Jozsef makes a blunder and is arrested again. Finally, he succeeds as an orange institute director. In the end, Virag reveals his true intent: Jozsef has to be a witness at a trial and falsely testify against his friend Zoltan, who fell out of favor against the Communists, and accuse him of being a Fascist agent. But at the trial, Jozsef is confused and angry when he spots an old enemy, Gulyas, as a witness, too, argues with him, and thus Gulyas incriminates Jozsef and Virag as agents, as well. Jozsef is sentenced to death, but released after the death of Stalin.
Already from the opening scenes where the protagonist Jozsef Pelikan arrives with his boat at the Danube shore, while his dog runs towards a giant sign on the meadow that says "Long Live Our Great and Wise Leader!" and urinates on it, it is already obvious Peter Bacso's brilliant "The Witness" will be a giant satirical poke at Communism, unbelievable in its audacity, which is why it was immediately banned by the Communist regime and landed in a bunker for a decade, but after the fall of Communism, it achieved a cult status. Bacso crafts a completely relaxed, casual and laconic film about the misadventures of its protagonist, through which it illustrates several layers of his society and system back in the day. Several jokes arrive so swiftly they play out almost as a kids movie, reminiscent of Czech humor, but always with a sharp edge since the allusions are obvious. The Communist ban in which farmers were not allowed to kill their own pig on their own farm to have meat for their kids is already absurd in itself.
In one sequence the secret police arrive at Jozsef's home, searching for the "illegal" meat, cannot find anything, but then Jozsef's friend, Zoltan Daniel, a Communist official, appears from the bedroom since he was sick and slept over at Jozsef's place, and scolds the two secret police agents. Zoltan even tells them that during World War II he was hiding in Jozsef's secret bunker, then opens its hidden entrance from the floor—and accidentally reveals the hidden basement full of meat downstairs, which gets Jozsef arrested. The episodes in which Communist official Virag tries to give Jozsef new jobs to rehabilitate him, but the latter does everything wrong by accident, are often very funny. For instance, Jozsef is assigned as the swimming pool director, and is surprised that it is closed since a Communist general is swimming all by himself in the empty swimming pool, and so allows a hundred customers inside, causing a bodyguard to jump into the water to "protect" the general from the kids around him who could be possible assassins. In another, Jozsef is the manager of a dark ride, Communist-themed roller coaster amusement park, and the Communist general is given the first ride inside. He spots a ghost over Europe, a giant hand that smashes the "bourgeoisie", and in the finale a sign says: "The enforcer of our victory" and a photo of himself shows up on the wall, after which the general is so scared he falls unconscious. Bacso elegantly builds a clever deconstruction of Communist system with all its flaws, with a lot of a sophistication hidden inside all the little gags scattered throughout the film.
Grade:+++
No comments:
Post a Comment