Cine Europa 2018
Edsa Shangri-la Cineplex
"Don't trust Anyone. Don't trust Yourself"
This 2011 Hungarian movie is set in 1957, Budapest. A period of uncertainty as the loyalty of every National Security officer is tested. Andras Jung is a young ambitious cultural NS officer disguising as a teacher who teaches German. In all eventuality, he is a government spy who gathers information and forwards it to his immediate superior, Marko. The older spy is a war hero and famous in the espionage industry.
Marko is tasked to test Jung's loyalty so he clandestinely monitors his 'pupil' from the opposite building. Hidden hearing devices are planted, cloak and dagger tactics are employed - anything to prove Jung is a faithful and reliable agent.
The film is in the Hungarian language so the words are totally foreign to me. The spy game plays out well in the movie but for all intents and purposes, the filming shows an amateur streak. The cast are believable in portraying spies. The narrative gets murky when you lose sight of who is actually spying on whom.
Yet the film succeeds in exploring the travails of a communist country (Hungary) in the dark era of the Cold War. A very volatile period for the espionage sector as the leaders are paranoid and need absolute loyalty from the members of the national security community. The Cold War is a sad period in Europe's rich history, it was plagued with violations of human rights, extreme poverty, a strong totalitarian government and no equal opportunities for all.
No comments:
Post a Comment