Így jöttem (1965)

In the final days of WWII, a seventeen-year-old boy wanders the countryside. He is captured by Soviet troops, then released, then captured once more - after he has donned a German uniform ... See full summary »

Director:

Miklós Jancsó

Writers:

Gyula Hernádi, Imre Vadász

Stars:

András Kozák, Sergey Nikonenko, Béla Barsi

Cast

Complete credited cast:
András Kozák	...	A fiú
Sergey Nikonenko	...	Kolja
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Béla Barsi	...	Lézengõ magyar katona
Jurij Bodovszkij
Viktor Chekmaryov
Sándor Csikós
Mari Csomós
László Csurka	...	Menekülõ
Ferenc Dávid Kiss
Zoltán Gera	...	Hadifogoly
Árpád Gyenge	...	Hazatérõ zsidó
Katalin Gyöngyössy
János Görbe	...	Menekülõ
Tibor Haraszin
János Harkányi

Storyline

In the final days of WWII, a seventeen-year-old boy wanders the countryside. He is captured by Soviet troops, then released, then captured once more - after he has donned a German uniform for warmth - and imprisoned at a remote barracks, where he strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Russian soldier. His attempts to return home form the crux of this wonderfully lyrical film, which displays all of the director's consistent themes: the psychological presence of landscape, the randomness of violence, the arbitrary nature of power.

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Plot Keywords:

friendship | wounded soldier | young soldier | world war two | student | 

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Details

Country:

Hungary

Language:

Hungarian Russian

Release Date:

14 January 1965 (Hungary)

Also Known As:

My Way Home

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mafilm

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Fejezetek a film történetéböl: A magyar film 1957-1970 (1990)

User Reviews

Imaginative and ambient

This film has been described as Jansco's first masterpiece. I would probably agree. The story concerns a 17yr old hungarian stranded in Russia at the end of the second world war, adrift after the collapse of the German army. He speaks a few words of German and no Russian. He seemingly feels nothing, and the film gives no easy explanations why. Like every other character in a Jansco film he seems completely overwhelmed by the scale of the landscape who finds himself wandering in almost antlike, almost always lost at the rear of a longshot. We never learn how close he is to hungary.

Eventually the film becomes a vivid and psychologically telling depiction of male friendship. In 1967 a story of friendship between a Russian and a hungarian after WW2 is an incredibly political subject,yet Jansco affects a kind of delightful innocence in this section and never lets his symbolism overwhelm his characters. What could have been over-reaching and didactic emerges as more of a chamber piece. I don't know how Jansco ever got away with making these kinds of movies in a soviet country.

My only caveat is that Jansco's most significant theme, political violence and its random nature, is partly explored in this film but in a way completely superficial and unaffecting compared to the terrible catharsis of films like "The round up" and "the red and the white".

Overall, a gem