TORZOK (ABANDONED)
Hungary, 2001, 100 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Arpad Sopsits.
Abandoned is a harrowing film. It is set in 1960 in an orphanage in the countryside of Hungary. The people in charge of the orphanage are oppressive, using punishment as a weapon. There are also suggestions of sexual abuse as well as physical.
The film focuses on a young boy who is orphaned and sent to the institution. The film focuses on a group of the boys there, on some of the teachers, most of the staff unsympathetic except for a teacher who is in trouble with the authorities and encourages the boys to think about astronomy, the stars and subjects beyond their oppressive situation. There is a sympathetic young woman also on the staff.
The film is graphic in its presentation of the children’s lives, their punishments – and their ultimate escape and the death of the boy in a frozen river.
The film is obviously an allegory of Hungary during the 1950s, especially with the aftermath of the Hungarian uprising in 1956. The film also has some themes which take the screenplay into the realms of philosophy and theology – issues of prayer, the nature of God, suffering and whether God hears prayers or whether God, if God exists, is deaf to the prayers of those who feel abandoned.
The film won the prize of the Ecumenical Jury in Montreal, 2001, where it also won the main prize.
1.The dramatic impact of the film? Drama and themes? Bleak? Possibilities of hope?
2.The Hungarian film-making, the retrospective on the 1960s, the period, its harshness, comparisons with the beginning of the 21st century?
3.The title, the children, their lives, the experience of abandonment? The adults’ experience? Hungary being abandoned at the time? The religious implications, everyone abandoned by God?
4.The visual style of the film, the dark, the colours, the glowing family opening, the contrast with the bleakness? The ending?
5.The prologue: Aron, playing with his parents, the kite, the openness of the sky, the joy, imagining himself flying, falling – and waking in the train?
6.His situation, orphaned, missing his mother? On the train with the custodian? The temptation to jump? His being held by the man, the toilet, being taken to the institution? His age, inexperience, his future?
7.The visual presentation of the institution, outside and inside? The look, the dormitories (and Aron being bashed by the other boys for initiation)? The line-ups, examination of hands and teeth, the master hitting the boys on the hand, the meals, the head, the various teachers, the woman on the staff? A harsh atmosphere? Punishment? The desire to escape?
8.Aron, central character and focus, his experience in coming to the orphanage, under the covers and being bashed, making friends with the boys, the friendly teacher and the astronomy, the stars, the piece of meteorite? Limitless possibilities? His experience of God, the denial of God’s existence? His being fascinated by the boy praying, questioning him about his beliefs? The discussions about God? His being blamed and having to haul the coal-box over the ground, not spilling any, his hurting his hand? The discipline at Christmas-time, the gift of the monkey and the savage comments of the teacher? The woman embracing him? His reliance on friendship, in bed with the boy, the beating of the boy praying and his reluctance, hitting him? The decision to escape, to take responsibility?
9.The details of the boys, their characters, their interactions with each other? Life in the orphanage, the treatment, the beatings, the boy and his prayer, his candle, devout, complete faith, trust? The teacher and his getting the boys to beat him, the wounds on his back? The sinister teacher, his supervision, Aron and his hauling the coal, having the young boy come into his room, naked, getting him to approach, the interrogation? An enclosed world?
10.The head, the relationship with the woman, the sinister aspects of the teachers, in their isolation? The contrast with the kindly teacher, his family in prison, his fear that Aron was a spy, the stars, the meteorite – and his hanging himself?
11.The build-up to the escape, the boys using their wits, hiding in the barn, the food, going across the river, the tentative steps on the ice, the rescue, the sadness of the boy dying, the praying boy surviving but in coma?
12.The return, Aron taking the blame, isolated, the hallucination with the merry-go-round and its part in the boys’ lives, his imagining the dead boy? Transferred to another orphanage, on the train, speaking to his mother, prayer, God, the temptation to jump? The film’s open-endedness?
13.The Hungarian experience, the communist regime, totalitarian in people’s lives? The universal application?
