The Great Generation

This award-winning film by Ferenc Andras is a commentary on the nature of the older and younger generation in Hungary during the mid-'80s. Reb (Gyorgy Cserhalmi) stole his friend Makai's (Karoly Eperjes) passport in 1968 and took off for the U.S. Seventeen years later, he comes back to Hungary with a teen-age daughter in tow and starts in with his usual underhanded, sly schemes for making money. Makai is at first happy to see him, but that soon fades. Reb's ex-wife Mari (Mari Kiss) feels the same. Meanwhile, Makai's son is called up for the draft, and that leads Makai to make a poor decision about how to help him avoid military service. In contrast to Reb, Makai, and the younger set, the elders who experienced all the horrors of war seem like paragons of both wisdom and stability.