Four accused await trial in a prison cell. The court accuses them of actively participating in the 1942 Novi Sad massacre that cost the lives of several thousand innocent civilians. The former soldiers recount what happened over those three freezing days. Terrible secrets come to light in the course of conversations approached from differing viewpoints. Cold Days is a film of particular importance for Hungarian historical memory: it focuses on a till then hushed-up event; at the same time, it is a superb compositional, acting and directorial achievement that, by rising above the given subject, examines universal questions of responsibility.
Supporting film:
Two Portraits
Két arckép, Hungarian documentary, bw, 1965, dir: András Kovács, Language: Hungarian, Subtitles: English, 31’
This collage film breaking with all traditional tools of animation is a historical vision inspired by Tolstoy’s War and Peace charting the Russia campaign by Napoleon. The film composed to Tchaikovsky’s overture of the same name reviews Eastern, Russian and Western, French cultures, which take on a cosmic force with the application of Eisenstein attraction montage theory and pop-montage loaned from fine art.
National Film Institute / András Kovács 100
