Liszka Angyal discovers that the man she believed was her father is in fact her uncle and her mother is in prison because she murdered her real father. The peasant girl from Transylvania is abandoned so she moves to the city to become a maidservant. She takes a position with the Kontra family where she and the young master of the house, Miklós, fall in love. However, the mistress of the house accuses Liszka of theft and sends her back to her village. When in the final throes of desperation she attempts suicide, there is an unexpected turn of events: her mother, who has recently been released from prison, turns up.
It is one of the earliest productions by the Oscar-winning director Mihály Kertész, known as Michael Curtiz (Casablanca).
The story is based on the stage play by Ede Tóth, to which the romantic Transylvanian landscapes and traditional village objects and costumes provide a breathtaking setting. The lovers are portrayed by two stars, Lili Berky and Mihály Várkonyi, while the role of mother was taken by legendary actress of the day Mari Jászai (this is her only feature film to have survived). The work is a beautifully constructed, sensitive mother-daughter drama whose plot running along twin lines successfully translates the literary core material into a high-quality artistic movie. This is why one critic of the day, straight after watching the premiere, assessed it as “the very first good Hungarian film”.
* Restored in 2014 by Hungarian National Digital Archive and Film Institute (MaNDA), with the aid of Hungarian National Film Fund, at Hungarian Filmlab in Budapest.
Classics O’Clock II, Thursday April 3, 19:45 CET
