A Tanú

The movie The Witness, or A Tanú in Hungarian, is a comedic film that deals with the issue of communism in Hungary, which lasted until the late 1980s. It was banned for about a 10 year span due to its criticism of the once all powerful communist regime in Hungary, but since has gained a wide popularity fan base. The film depicts the life of a simple dyke keeper and communist supporter, József Pelikán, and his family. It starts out with Pelikán, as he is referred to, slaughtering a pig illegally to provide food for his large, motherless family and quickly escalates to Pelikán being locked up for this act after an accidental encounter with an old friend and officer, Zoltán Dániel. He is then released by the order of a higher power in the communist regime, Comrade Virág, and given special tasks which were created to give special privileges to Pelikán to gain his trust and allegiance to Virág and the communist regime. He becomes the CEO of a swimming pool, an amusement park, and an orange-research facility, and he does something wrong during every job; therefore landing himself in prison after each job only to be bailed out and placed in a new job by Virág, to the point where it becomes comical.

Eventually the ridiculousness reaches its height as Pelikán is asked to be the star witness in a show trial against his friend and alleged spy Zoltán Dániel. Pelikán is presented with a testimony that he must memorize which deals with absurdities of frogmen and other magnificent lies. He is fed twisted lies and sayings by Virág as a means of confusing and distancing him against his old friend in order to intentionally cause him to side with the communist regime. He is put through rigorous training and is styled to fit the part of a star witness with new clothes and a haircut. Even his facial hair is styled to fit the part of a star witness. After the rigorous training, memorizing, and styling, Pelikán comes to his senses and tells the truth in the court as opposed to the lies he was coaxed into saying by Virág. After the trial, he is again imprisoned for treason against the communist regime and order to be hanged, but just before his hanging is to occur, the government changes, the communists are kicked out of power, and Pelikán is released. He goes back to being a simple dyke keeper, the job which he never wanted to leave, and even runs into Comrade Virág, who lost all his former importance with the fall of communism, in a comical situation that brings the movie full circle with its ridiculous quotes and comical situations.

Overall, I thought this was a great movie. While it was difficult at times to keep up with the subtitles and the actions on the screen because of being filmed in Hungarian, it was still very funny, even after being translated into English. Sometimes films lose some of their comedy in translation, but this film did not. It gave me a deeper sense of the ridiculousness that was Stalinist Communism and gave me a better perspective on the inner workings of promotions given to communist supporters and the trials put against anti-communist peoples. This film was very brave in its portrayal of communist Hungary, and I can see why it was banned for ten years, yet it is because of this bold interpretation that caused it great success after communism’s fall. I enjoyed the quotations between Comrade Virág and Pelikán very much, for example “The international situation is intensifying.” Quotes like this just emphasized the absurdity of the beliefs of the rulers in the communist government, which reflects the ludicrousness of the communist rule. I recommend seeing this film, if not for learning more about aspects of communism, at least for a good laugh.

Kristin Kurtz