Angi Vera

At a compulsory political propaganda session at a hospital in communist Hungary in the fall of 1948 Vera Angi, a shy 18-year-old nursemaid, raises and courageously criticizes the hospital's corruption and its neglect of the patients. Her criticism impresses the comrades, particularly as it legitimates their plans to get rid of some politically untrustworthy doctors. The fact that Vera is an orphan of working-class background is particularly useful—she fits the template for new cadres that the Communist Party is looking to promote. The Party needs people like Vera, and soon she is sent to a six-month long political education course for party functionaries. Angi Vera is the story of an individual's doomed attempt to break free in a society which has banned individuality in principle. Rather than challenging and confronting the system, Vera Angi becomes its voluntary victim. Her crippled personality fits well the psychological profile drafted by the communists. She has rejected human warmth, friendship, and love, and she does not care very much about being alone.