Goldberg Variations

Hungary's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1990

The royal summary court sentences Sallai Imre and Fürst Sándor to death on charges of attempting to uproot the state and the social order. The film, the story of which takes place in 1932, enlarges the moment of delivering the death-sentence. Sallai, preparing for his death, envisions the people and the events that have been decisive for his life.

1894. The mortal remains of Lajos Kossuth are brought home from abroad, the railways are lined with people with their hats in hand, and among them stands the teenager Imre Tányér. 1910. The grown-up Imre undertakes the task to solve the question unsolved since 1848-49, i.e. the transformation of peasant life. He fights for the rights of his class, for justice, for human dignity in a society distorted, backward and built on inequality.

The man is promoted and given a new assignment at his work-place. At home, he stares at a video-cassette: it portrays his wife's face in countless versions, she is sometimes simply beautiful, then unfathomable, but it is mostly a sad, closed, lonely face.

Grunwalsky was among the authors of the manifesto entitled "Let´s Create a Sociological Film Group!" which expressed filmmakers´ interest in all parts of the society. The subject of a Roma settlement gains an almost metaphysical dimension as we watch a long, slow shot of a silent 15-year-old Roma mother.

Pál Utrius is twenty three years old and in love with his sister.

Józsi drives a taxi all day long. He often telephones Éva, who, on the other hand, stays home all day long, having nothing else to do but to be beautiful and wait for Józsi.