Thorkell A Ottarsson
Jews and Jewish themes are one of the most overlooked themes in Miklós Jancsó's body of work. He was not a Jew himself but was fascinated by their culture and struggle. He even made this three part documentary about their culture in three different places in Hungary (he had actually planed to make 5 films but for a reason unknown to me, ended with only three). The first one is about Jews in Budapest, the 2nd one, this one here, is about Jews in Máramaros and the third one about Jews in Hegyalja.The first film and this one are almost without a dialog. All of the documentaries are rather aimless and Jancsó has too much respect for his subject to dare do something interesting or show us anything out of the ordinary. It feels like a polite confirmation video of family and friends. Not among Miklós Jancsó's best.
