The Tyrant's Heart, or Boccaccio in Hungary

A young prince has spent his years in Italy. He has fallen in with a circle of his own there. One day word comes from his country. His father is dead. How the death happened is not clear. The prince has to return to Hungary. At court he cannot work out who knows what. Where his mother stands is uncertain too. Everyone around him is running a calculation. The further the story goes the muddier the truth gets. The shape of it recalls Hamlet. Jancsó does not tell any of this as a straight history film. The scenes are built as choreography. Masks, mime and ceremony come to the front. The middle ages here are arranged like a fable. It competed at Venice in 1981. Ninetto Davoli and Teresa Ann Savoy appear in the eighty seven minute film, a Hungarian production Miklós Jancsó finished in 1981.