(Szegénylegények, Miklós Jancsó, Hungary 1966, 90 min., 35mm, Hungarian with English subtitles)
In the wake of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, a remote outpost is established to be a prison camp for suspected rebels. Housing followers of Sándor Rózsa, believed to be the last of those loyal to rebel leader Lajos Kossuth, the camp officials are charged with separating the rebels from the loyalists. When János Gajdar (János Görbe) is identified by a woman prisoner as a murderer, the guards tell him that he will be pardoned if he can find a man in the prison who has killed more people than he has. This starts a spiral of back-stabbing and informing among the prisoners that seemingly has no end. This unrelenting masterpiece brought director Miklós Jancsó his first international attention in a career that would last another forty-five years.
Introduction and post-screening discussion by Senior Curator Peter Bagrov
