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IMDb > A tanú (1969)

Overview

User Rating:
7.6/10   1,475 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 3% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers:
Péter Bacsó (writer)
János Ujhelyi (writer)
Contact:
View company contact information for A tanú on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
28 January 1983 (Finland) more
Genre:
Plot:
Banned for over a decade for its outspoken criticism of the post-WWII communist regime in Hungary, Péter... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
NewsDesk:
(2 articles)
Hungarian Director Bacso Dies
 (From WENN. 12 March 2009, 5:10 AM, PDT)

Hungarian Movie Mogul Bacso Dead
 (From WENN. 11 March 2009, 6:30 PM, PDT)

User Comments:
"Don't call it a lemon, comrade. It's a Hungarian orange." more (8 total)

Cast

  (Credited cast)
Ferenc Kállai ... Pelikán József, gátõr
Lajos Öze ... Virág Árpád (as Õze Lajos)
Béla Both ... Bástya elvtárs
Zoltán Fábri ... Dániel Zoltán
Lili Monori ... Gizi
Károly Bicskey ... Gulyás Elemér
György Kézdi ... Virág detectívje
József Horváth ... Vasutas
Róbert Rátonyi ... Oprettszínész
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
György Bálint
Pál Bánó
Mária Dudás ... Gépírónõ
Tibor Fehér
György Györffy ... Börtönigazgató
József Iványi
Pál Jákó
Péter Korbuly
Georgette Mertzhradt
Lajos Mezey
Steve Nemeth (as István Németh)
István Novák ... Dr. Kotász, hóhér
György Pálfi
József Pecsenke ... Bástya testõre
Mária Rákosi ... A miniszter titkárnõje
Tibor Sipeki
Lajos Tándor ... Jegyszedõ
László Vámos ... Idegorvos
István Velenczei ... Minisztériumi alkalmazott
Ida Versényi ... Gogolák elvtársnõ
more
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
The Witness
more
Runtime:
105 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Several quotes from the movie, especially the ones "the international situation is intensifying" and "life is not a whipped-cream cake" have become part of everyday speech in Hungary. more
Quotes:
Csetneki: Confidential upper orders. Vigilance comes first. more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Ereszd el a szakállamat! (1975) more
Soundtrack:
Jaj, cica more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
21 out of 21 people found the following comment useful.
"Don't call it a lemon, comrade. It's a Hungarian orange.", 11 October 1999
Author: Miles-10 from United States

I rank this with "Dr. Strangelove" as one of the funniest political satires I have ever seen. I saw it about 18 years ago at the Mill Valley Film Festival in Marin County, California. I am not Hungarian and have never lived under communism, yet I laughed out of recognition at Peter Bocso's critique of a system so involved with policing itself against imaginary reactionaries that it stops taking care of practical business. The hero is an everyman in charge of flood control at a dam. He is taken to the capital to be a witness in a show trial. Meanwhile, who is minding the dam? While he waits for the court to call on him, the star witness is given a series of do-nothing jobs for which he would not be qualified even if they weren't bogus. The funniest involves supervising the development of the first Hungarian orange (Magyar naranz?) which actually turns out to be a lemon. Is it politically incorrect to call a lemon "a lemon"?

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Related Links

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