The Witness

József Pelikán keeps a dam on the Danube and understands nothing of politics. Zoltán Dániel, a friend whose life he saved years ago, is now a powerful politician. One day Pelikán is arrested, then released, then appointed to a run of jobs he knows nothing about: manager of a swimming pool, head of an amusement park, director of an orange-growing institute. Each time he is dismissed for incompetence and promoted again. In the end his real assignment is disclosed: he is to testify at a show trial. Péter Bacsó's film targets the Stalinist purges in Hungary in the 1950s; the figure of Dániel points directly at László Rajk, executed in 1949. The humour comes entirely out of the absurdity of bureaucratic language itself. The film was shot in 1969 and kept locked away by the Kádár government for ten years. It was only able to open on 6 June 1979, and became a cult film in Hungary. Ferenc Kállai plays Pelikán. Who it's for: Anyone curious about Eastern European political satire, bureaucratic comedy, and banned films. Who it's not for: Most of the jokes point at Hungarian politics of the period, and a viewer without that context may miss what is happening in many places.