I feared this film highlighting one the most dramatic events in modern history would be hampered by bare stage sets and other shortcomings resulting from short funding in Hungary, or the portrayal of events would be marred by national self-pity. It turned out to be nothing short of a well-balanced, historically correct film that arouses great curiosity about what went on in the streets of Budapest (and elsewhere in Hungary) in October and November 1956, and in my mind provokes enormous sympathy for the Hungarian civilians at the time, and the country in general.<br /><br />Director Kata Dobo has had every good reason to use certain elements familiar to commercial "western" films. It is an important story that should reach a wider audience. Far too many probably know little or nothing about these events. The Olympic games and the need for love are parallel stories in the film which we all understand, and yet are not melodramatic. <br /><br />This leaves us to grasp just what the turmoil of revolution, secret police reprisals and finally the deaf ear of "the West" was about. I can imagine the Hungarians involved in making this film have put their souls into it. The least we can do is to listen this time to what they have to say. The film once over, I can't imagine anyone not getting the message.<br /><br />It is inevitable that a film portraying a revolution without the massive (and often excessive) funding of "western" films, can only show examples of key ingredients - the Molotov cocktails, conviction and doubt, Russian brutality, divided loyalties, chaotic emergency services, daredevil teenagers, family divisions, honesty and deception. These true aspects come across not only sufficiently, but well, especially one of the most noteworthy of them: the women at the forefront of the fighting. <br /><br />The modest colouring is in tact with the time, and the mood. The observer is carried from one realistic scene to the another as quickly as the bewildering swiftness of the revolution must have unfolded at the time.<br /><br />At the time, in fear of making the cold war colder, the leaders of the West, with President Eisenhower at the top of the list, support for the Hungarian cry for freedom was shamefully guarded, but as the scenes from the Melbourne Olympics demonstrated, public opinion was not unguarded. This film presents an excellent opportunity for some to recall what really happened in Hungary in 1956, for others a first insight. Luckily the jury of the Berlin international film festival seized the opportunity.