Memories of a River | |
---|---|
Directed by | Judit Elek |
Written by | Judit Elek Péter Nádas |
Produced by | Gábor Hanák Hubert Niogret András Ozori |
Cinematography | Gábor Halász |
Edited by | Katalin Kabdebo |
Music by | Péter Eötvös György ifj. Kurtág |
Distributed by | Quartet Films Inc. (USA) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 147 minutes |
Countries | Hungary France |
Language | Hungarian |
Memories of a River (Hungarian : Tutajosok) is a 1990 Hungarian drama film directed by Judit Elek. It is a historical film set in 1882 and tells the story of the last trial in Hungary of a Jew for ritual murder. [1]
In the 19th century Austro-Hungarian Empire David Hersko, a Jewish shepherd, witnesses the attack of a young girl. His home is burned down and he finds shelter with the family of a Jewish logger. The loggers find the body of a young woman which they bury, going against local laws. They are charged with her murder and it is believed that they killed her as a ritual murder. [2]
For the purposes of the film 14 sheep were spread with flammable substance, and then to the order by Judit Elek were burned alive. [3] 69 scientists from the Jagiellonian University demanded from authorities of forbidding Judit Elek entry to Poland. Scientists wrote among others: "No director knowing her own worth would debase herself for using so primitive and cruel methods".
The film won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 1989 Montréal World Film Festival. [4] In 1990 it won the Grand Prix at the Créteil International Women's Film Festival. [5]
Blood libel or ritual murder libel is an antisemitic canard which falsely accuses Jews of murdering Christians in order to use their blood in the performance of religious rituals. Echoing very old myths of secret cultic practices in many prehistoric societies, the claim, as it is leveled against Jews, was rarely attested to in antiquity. According to Tertullian, it originally emerged in late antiquity as an accusation made against members of the early Christian community of the Roman Empire. Once this accusation had been dismissed, it was revived a millennium later as a Christian slander against Jews in the medieval period. The first examples of medieval blood libel emerged in England in the mid 1100s before spreading into other parts of Europe, especially France and Germany. This libel, alongside those of well poisoning and host desecration, became a major theme of the persecution of Jews in Europe from that period down to modern times.
Judit Polgár is a Hungarian chess grandmaster, widely regarded as the strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the youngest to have done so, breaking the record previously held by former world champion Bobby Fischer. She was the youngest player ever to break into the FIDE top 100 players rating list, ranking No. 55 in the January 1989 rating list, at the age of 12.
Shtetl or shtetel is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The term is used in the context of former East European Jewish societies as mandated islands within the surrounding non-Jewish populace, and thus bears certain connotations of discrimination. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas that constituted the 19th-century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, as well as in Congress Poland, Austrian Galicia, the Kingdom of Romania and the Kingdom of Hungary.
Ilona Elek, known also as Ilona Elek-Schacherer was a Hungarian Olympic fencer. Elek won more international fencing titles than any other woman.
István Szabó is a Hungarian film director, screenwriter, and opera director.
The Rhineland massacres, also known as the German Crusade of 1096 or Gzerot Tatnó, were a series of mass murders of Jews perpetrated by mobs of French and German Christians of the People's Crusade in the year 1096,. These massacres are often seen as the first in a sequence of antisemitic events in Europe which culminated in the Holocaust.
Free Zone is a 2005 film directed by Amos Gitai. Shot in Israel and Jordan, the Israeli-Belgian-French-Spanish production stars Israeli Jewish actress Hanna Laslo, Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass, and Israeli-American actress Natalie Portman. It is the second film of Gitai's "Border" or "Frontier" trilogy.
The Tiszaeszlár affair was originally a murder case which was represented in journals as a blood libel that led to a trial that set off anti-semitic agitation in Austria-Hungary in 1882 and 1883. After the disappearance of a local girl, Eszter Solymosi, Jews were accused of murdering and beheading her. A body was found some time later in a river, she having apparently drowned, but the Hungarian Highest Court (Kúria) found that the body was not that of Eszter, but had been dressed in her clothes. A lengthy trial followed, eventually resulting in the acquittal of all the accused.
Elek is a town in Békés County, in the Southern Great Plain region of south-east Hungary. Until the Second World War, the town was home to the largest concentration of Germans in the county, with its population consisting almost entirely of Swabians. Jews lived in the city as early as the 19th century and in 1944 many of them were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.
The Shoes on the Danube Bank is a memorial erected on 16 April 2005, in Budapest, Hungary. Conceived by film director Can Togay, he created it on the east bank of the Danube River with sculptor Gyula Pauer to honour the Jews who were massacred by fascist Hungarian militia belonging to the Arrow Cross Party in Budapest during the Second World War. They were ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. The memorial represents their shoes left behind on the bank.
This timeline of antisemitism chronicles events in the history of antisemitism, hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as members of a religious and/or ethnic group. It includes events in Jewish history and the history of antisemitic thought, actions which were undertaken in order to counter antisemitism or alleviate its effects, and events that affected the prevalence of antisemitism in later years. The history of antisemitism can be traced from ancient times to the present day.
The Governess is a 1998 British period drama film written and directed by Sandra Goldbacher. The screenplay focuses on a young Jewish woman of Sephardic background, who reinvents herself as a gentile governess when she is forced to find work to support her family.
Perlasca – Un eroe Italiano is a 2002 Italian drama, directed by Alberto Negrin, about Giorgio Perlasca, an Italian businessman working in Hungary for his government. After the surrender of Italy to the Allies, he took refuge in the Spanish embassy. Aware of the threat to Jews, he first began to help them find shelter in Spanish safe houses.
Judit Elek is a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. She directed 16 films between 1962 and 2006. Her film Mária-nap was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival.
Ferencvárosi Torna Club is a Hungarian professional women's handball team from Budapest, that is part of the multi-sports club Ferencvárosi TC. Nicknamed Fradi, the team plays in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I, the top level championship in Hungary. They are one of the most successful clubs in the country, having won eleven Hungarian championships and as many Hungarian cup titles. FTC also enjoy a good reputation in continental competitions: they lifted the EHF Cup Winners' Cup trophy in 1978, 2011, and 2012, and they were also crowned as the EHF Cup winners in 2006. The team also reached the finals of the EHF Champions League two times, however, they fell short in both occasions.
Walking with the Enemy is a 2014 American action drama film directed by Mark Schmidt, and scripted by Kenny Golde and Mark Schmidt. The film stars Jonas Armstrong, Ben Kingsley, Simon Kunz, Hannah Tointon, Simon Dutton, Burn Gorman, and Charles Hubbell. It is inspired by the true story of Pinchas Tibor Rosenbaum.
Diana Groó is a Hungarian film director and screenwriter.
The Lady from Constantinople is a 1969 Hungarian comedy-drama film directed by Judit Elek in her feature film debut. The film is a dramedy centering around a widowed elderly woman played by Manyi Kiss. The film was partially shot guerilla style in the streets of Budapest, with the lead actress interacting with bemused passersby on camera. The film has played in retrospective at Cannes Film Festival and Rotterdam Film Festival; it also played Out of Competition at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival and 1969 New York Film Festival. The 35mm restoration was undertaken by National Film Institute Hungary.