The ELTE–NFI University Film Club screening and discussion series continues. We welcome university members from all ELTE faculties.
Zoltán Fábri adapted Ferenc Molnár's classic with English actors to Hollywood standards. It was the first Hungarian film to be nominated for an Oscar. Ferenc Molnár's 1907 youth novel has been translated into more than 30 languages and has become required reading in many places. It has been adapted for film five times, with Fábri's version considered the gold standard among the various adaptations. The child actors are young English people who were selected from a London drama school. It is an unapologetically genre film, which is perfectly Hollywood-compatible in terms of its dramatic structure, rhythm, planning, set design, and the siege scene in the finale.
It is the turn of the century, and two groups of schoolchildren are competing with each other in Budapest's 8th district. The children playing on the Pál Street playground learn that the red-shirted gang, led by Áts Feri, are preparing to attack them in the herb garden. They choose Bokát as their leader, everyone is given an officer's rank, and only the scrawny Ernő Nemecsek remains a private, who is later unjustly accused of treason. To prove his loyalty, the little boy embarks on a partisan action that later proves fatal, and then the day of the great battle arrives.
In the film, the younger Pásztor was played by Nyika Jancsó, son of Miklós Jancsó, who went on to become a cinematographer as an adult and studied under György Illés and Zoltán Fábri at college. In 2017, he also contributed to the complete restoration of the film.
Venue: University Square Campus (1053 Budapest, Egyetem tér 1-3, ground floor, A/1 practice room, corridor next to the cloakroom)
Date: 1 October 2025, 6 p.m.
Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyuWNiQBpZs
Director: Zoltán Fábri
Screenplay: Zoltán Fábri, Endre Bohém, based on the novel by Ferenc Molnár
Cinematographer: György Illés
Editor: Ferencné Széchényi
Music: Emil Petrovics
Main cast: Anthony Kemp, William Burleigh, Mari Törőcsik, László Paál, Sándor Pécsi, John Moulder Brown
Our guests in the post-screening discussion will be cinematographer Miklós Jancsó ’Nyika’, one of the film's actors, and Ambrus Gönczi, local historian, museologist and director of the Ferencváros Local History Collection.
Letters regarding the film club should be sent to the organizers at eltenfi.filmklub@elte.hu.
Az ELTE–NFI Film Club Facebook