The first film from Hungary to examine the 1956 anti-communist uprising does so from a sober but not always serious point of view, through the eyes of a boisterous Budapest family swept up in the resulting turmoil. Most of the action is witnessed by ten-year old Tomi, who aside from everything else has to shoulder the extra burden of his own sexual awakening, next to which the Soviet invasion is only a happy excuse not to go to school. The film will likely be compared (somewhat unfairly) to John Boorman's more polished wartime coming-of-age comedy 'Hope and Glory', which it actually pre-dates by several years. It may lack a consistent narrative thread, but individual scenes are priceless, like the hair-raising moment when an afternoon joyride on a railroad handcart takes several children through a tense forest ambush. Altogether it's a timely, touching reminder of how, even in moments of total social chaos, human beings will always remain refreshingly, fallibly human.
3 Reviews
Jól szemlélteti a kor eseményeit
dudasadam-5105110 October 2018
Pertussis: The 1956 in Hungary with Jewish eyes
fama-815 October 2009
Pertussis is not today's movie. Its made in 1987, at the time of Gorbachev's Glasnost. Really brave in this film: to present the Jews in Budapest, with its frank naturalness, and the fact that they were here in 1956, but it was just not the story about them.
The father - Dezso Garas (Jewish actor) - Manager. Where, what kind of company , it is not clear, but behavior reveals that position was not because of his talent. Large, luxurious apartment living in upper-middle class, which we know to whom was in the fifties. The mother - Judit Hernádi (also Jewish actor) - doesn't not work. What's more, she has even a maid. Stalin's Works on the shelf all lined up, and have two children, ten years old Tomi and the three-form Annamari. The family's Surname is not clear from the film, but this film is for not those, who cannot read between the lines Anyone who does not understand the background, will be bored, because you can not see any traces of a plot. However there IS a plot. The plot is, that there isn't any plot. They do nothing in 1956.
In 1956 the Jews did not do anything. This family does not make anything else than blinking in panic. They do not understand what the trouble is, who is shooting and what happened to the normal, peaceful world. They are just fear that someone "comes" for them. Can be both sides. I did not understand the director - Peter Gardos - for the pointless animal cruelty (in the school benches we see a dying fish for several minutes) But maybe the film director is a Jew too.
After the short war of independence of 1956 finally there will be nothing. The school starts again in November, although the half class disappears, the family stays at home and not emigrate. All returns to normal, and no one takes away the Jews, just Dad will be a manager in an another company. The Jews continue to look at the history, and blinking, and have no idea that they just excluded from the life of a nation. But it is not interesting them, they have their own troubles.
The father - Dezso Garas (Jewish actor) - Manager. Where, what kind of company , it is not clear, but behavior reveals that position was not because of his talent. Large, luxurious apartment living in upper-middle class, which we know to whom was in the fifties. The mother - Judit Hernádi (also Jewish actor) - doesn't not work. What's more, she has even a maid. Stalin's Works on the shelf all lined up, and have two children, ten years old Tomi and the three-form Annamari. The family's Surname is not clear from the film, but this film is for not those, who cannot read between the lines Anyone who does not understand the background, will be bored, because you can not see any traces of a plot. However there IS a plot. The plot is, that there isn't any plot. They do nothing in 1956.
In 1956 the Jews did not do anything. This family does not make anything else than blinking in panic. They do not understand what the trouble is, who is shooting and what happened to the normal, peaceful world. They are just fear that someone "comes" for them. Can be both sides. I did not understand the director - Peter Gardos - for the pointless animal cruelty (in the school benches we see a dying fish for several minutes) But maybe the film director is a Jew too.
After the short war of independence of 1956 finally there will be nothing. The school starts again in November, although the half class disappears, the family stays at home and not emigrate. All returns to normal, and no one takes away the Jews, just Dad will be a manager in an another company. The Jews continue to look at the history, and blinking, and have no idea that they just excluded from the life of a nation. But it is not interesting them, they have their own troubles.
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