The Fifth Seal

1944, Budapest. The war is going on and the Arrow Cross is in power in the city. Four men meet every evening in a tavern: a watchmaker, a carpenter, a bookseller and the innkeeper. They talk, they drink, they speak of everyday things. One evening the watchmaker asks a question: if you had to choose between two lives, would you be a master who oppresses but has no conscience, or a slave who is wronged but honest. The question looks like a joke. That evening there is a stranger at the table. The next day all four are arrested. Zoltán Fábri directs. Lajos Őze is in the cast. The source is Ferenc Sánta's novel. The second half takes place entirely in an interrogation room and the four are made an offer; the offer turns the previous evening's question into fact. The matter the narrative builds is that moral questions do not stay abstract; the men have to live the next day what they argued about the night before. The film is among the most cited works in Hungarian cinema and was shown at international festivals. The narrative makes no character a hero and the decisions taken are not explained. The image is dark and the spaces narrow; the tavern and the cell are almost the only settings. The ending is short and carries no comment. Who it is for: viewers who like Eastern European cinema and narratives of moral dilemma. Who it is not for: it rests on talk, the pace is slow, and the last section is extremely heavy.