Search The Archive
A romantic, nostalgic film of a young man traversing time and distance to recapture a past love.
On a train between Budapest and Paris, Jancsi relives through a series of flashbacks the period he spent with Kata, the girl whom he is travelling to meet. The memories come flooding back. Memories of their childhood together, of school days, short quarrels, moments of jealousy and their first naive flirtations. Interwoven in retrospective sequences are the war years and time of the 1956 Hungarian revolution, when they nearly became lovers before she fled to France, begging him to come with her. He refused, and it is now ten years since they parted.
Nearing his destination, he pictures how it will be when they are together again. When the train stops at a provincial town, he is taken to see Kata…
Istvan Szabo is the youngest film director with an international reputation.
At the age of 23, his short films, Concert, Variations Upon a Theme and You, were awarded prizes and diplomas at various international festivals.
His first feature, The Age of Daydreaming, was produced in 1964 when he was 26. His next film, Father, won the grand prix at the Moscow Film Festival. Both of these films have been shown at previous Melbourne Film Festivals.