Why Wasn't He There?

Anthology film made as an act of protest against Hungarian government of Viktor Orban.

The Annunciation (in Hungarian: Angyali üdvözlet) is a Hungarian film directed by András Jeles in 1984, based on The Tragedy of Man (1861) by Imre Madách. When Adam (Péter Bocsor) and Eve (Júlia Mérő), having succumbed to Lucifer's temptation, are cast out of the Garden of Eden, Adam holds Lucifer (Eszter Gyalog) to his promise, reminding him that "You said I would know everything!". So Lucifer grants Adam a dream of the world to come. And what a bizarre dream: Adam becomes Miltiades in Athens; a knight called Tancred in Byzantium; Kepler in Prague; Danton in revolutionary Paris; and a nameless suitor in Victorian London. Guided by a deceptively sweet but ultimately contemptuous Lucifer, Adam confronts an endless procession of the horror of the human story ... rapists and concubines, betrayal and savagery, mindless cruelty and fanaticism.

The twenty-year-old young man Sz. László is a lorry guard employed by an agricultural co-operative located in the vicinity of the capital. One day he neither posts the money officially entrusted to him nor goes to work, spending time and money as he likes on things he otherwise cannot afford, such as hanging around, sweets, driving in taxis, restaurants, Lake Balaton, girls, etc.

Our story unfolds parallel to the uncovering of hidden messages in a mysterious painting. The painting in question is The Ambassadors, the well known work of Hans Holbein which at several points inflicts a wound upon a reality depicted as harmonious and complete. One such wound is the anamorphic skull which drifts in the foreground of the painting conveying a paradox impression that makes the viewer question what he/she sees and does not see. This visual sensation arouses the suspicion that here, within the universe of Holbein's painting rhizomatic meanings run along behind and beyond the simple representation as the story of the characters in the film is also mysteriously connected to events of this 500 year old time segment.

A regular Sunday in 1970s Budapest.

Miklós Szentkuthy reports on his life, his works, the Holy Trinity, Karl Marx, and the time he became a cardinal.

Interesting crime story about woman-prisoner, incest and murder..