HISTORY AS AN ARCHETYPE OF HUNGARIAN CINEMA. YEAR 1956 FROM THE CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE - THE REVOLUTION IN RECENT FILMS (Historia jako archetyp kina wegierskiego. Spojrzenie na 1956 rok z dzisiejszej perspektywy, czyli najnowsze filmy o rewolucji)

The author analyses recent Hungarian films about the 1956 revolution. The need to return to the past was already present in films from the communist era, for example in films by István Szabó, Miklós Jancsó, Zoltán Fábri or Márta Mészáros. This suggested that history would remain an important element of the Hungarian cinematography. However the political changes of the late 1980s and 90s did not cause an increase in a number of historical films being made, even though they were no longer censored. The new reality was simply far more interesting than the past. It was possible that the Hungarian October revolution would be long forgotten (which is what Kádár would have wanted) had it not been for the 50th anniversary of the revolution. Then as part of the celebrations, several films about the events were screened. They showed the revolution from various perspectives and represented a variety of styles. Films of note included Márta Mészáros' 'The Unburied Man' (A temetetlen halott, 2004), Andor Szilágyi's 'Mansfeld' (2006), Krisztina Goda's 'Freedom and Love' (Szabadság szerelem, 2006), and György Szomjas 'The Sun Street Boys' (A Nap utcai fiúk, 2007).