Focus: A Film Review (1950-1951)

240 KUKSI Starring: Arthur Sanlay, Suzy Banky, Nicholas Gabor, Ladislas Morvath. A Mafirt-Radvanyi Production. London Films Presentation. Certificate: A. Category: A. Running time: ioo minutes. This Hungarian film when shown on the Continent bore the title It Happened in Europe. It depicts with pathos and, one feels, with terrifying exactitude what happens to the homeless and often nameless children scattered by war as they come together for self protection. They are like animals, yet, as individuals, they come under the influence of natural leaders from among their own number who direct them in the struggle for survival. But the leaders are barely adolescent and are themselves unformed. In this film we have such a haphazard band of pathetic hooligans wandering over what apparently is Hungary. By masterly cutting we are shown the implications of the human waste arising out of the material waste of war. We have the legs of the goose-stepping Nazis, the wheels of the deportation trains, the feet of the children churning up the dust of the endless roads, trudging along the cracked surface of the parched fields and racing to the shallow, tired streams for water. We see the animal scrambles for what food thej can steal from one another and rob from the farms. Naturally they are hunted from the countryside where self protection is the rule for the farmers who do not worry about the children’s problems. At last after a hard fight with suspicion of a kindness they cannot understand they are given a sense of community — their own community to begin with before they reach the larger issues. The band has its own tragicomedies and its own tragedies ; but we leave it with a note of hope and possible peace. At first I was puzzled by some of the undertones of the production. The famous old musician who befriends the children arouses them to a regard for responsible liberty by gradually teaching them the “Marseillaise”. I may be a “fascist heart” for saying so, but this grqat song of liberty has often been the incantation of revolutionaries who have overturned one tyranny and substituted another. Was this almost mystical treatment of such a secular thing as the “Marseillaise” a softening up for the “Internationale” ? I W'ondered. Was Communism being subtly indicated by the restraint on the individualism of these children, leading them away from self into the well-ordered community ? But checks on the individual for the good of all are a mark of civilised society and do not pre-suppose the negation or violation of individual rights which Communism imposes. So that was all right. Then subsequently I discovered that Hungary was fairly free when the film was made in 1945, and that this production was actually chosen for presentation and discussion at a Cine Forum directed by the famous Pere Morlion, O.P., at Bologna, in 1949. At this discussion the central theme of Kuksi was formulated as follows : “At every difficult moment, in all times of stress (such as war, misery, injustice), children carry within themselves an inner force w-hich may come to the open and manifest itself, leading them on the right road if this force meets in others a kindness great enough to awaken spiritual energies”. In spite of this judgment from the most respect-worthy quarter, I still have a faint feeling of regret that the kindness displayed is, according to the evidence submitted by the film itself, no more than lofty liumanitarianism. The acting of the principals is noteworthy. The performance of the children is something to see, and wholly admirable. There is no difficulty in following the story as the sub-titling is excellent. You will probably be thrilled by the music which has its own part in conveying emotion — and by the dramatic silences as well. X.