Ten Thousand Days

The film covers thirty years of Hungary. At the centre of the account is a peasant named István Széles. Juli and Fülöp Bánó stand alongside him. The story opens in the middle of the sixties. From there it goes back some ten thousand days. It sets out from the nineteen thirties and moves forward. The years of the Second World War run through the account. After them comes the remaking of the land system. Collectivisation rebuilds peasant life from the ground up. The year 1956 and the decade after it are covered as well. The three men remember their lives by looking back. The scenes move forward and backward in turn. The tone of the film is heavy and still. History here is seen from a field rather than from the great events. The production won the award for directing at Cannes. Tibor Molnár and Gyöngyi Bürös appear in the hundred and ten minute film, a Hungarian production Ferenc Kósa finished in 1967.