The Forgotten Faces 1961
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Michael Daniel Kelly, aged 17, dead in the gutter of the Kalmenjózsef Street, Budapest, Hungary.
00:17The date is Monday, October the 29th, 1956. It is morning, a harsh morning.
00:30Everywhere can be seen the scars of revolution, because for six days Budapest has been agonized
00:40by an armed revolt against its communist government. It was begun, as so many revolutions are begun,
00:52by students. These are their faces. It was their ultimatum to the government on October
01:02the 23rd, which set in motion the gear wheels of revolution. They are the faces of embryo
01:08technicians, lawyers, artists and teachers, all fevered with the social discontent of
01:13their time, a discontent which has spread itself from the most advanced of students to the
01:19most junior of schoolboys.
01:25From their secret and forbidden meeting places, the revolution has brought the students and
01:29the workers out onto the open of the streets of Budapest. Joined by soldiers and other
01:35civilians and armed with a few submachine guns, grenades and ancient rifles, and bearing their
01:40national flags and emblems, they march in procession to defy the Hungarian government and the Russian
01:46tanks it has called in to suppress them.
02:02On this morning, October the 29th, such a procession passes up our Kelmen-Yozhev street.
02:09Their purpose? Demonstration. The objective? Parliament Square in the centre of the city.
02:16But they are never to get there.
02:23For suddenly, the crowd is fired upon by police snipers and machine gunners on the roof of a nearby barracks.
02:29In a few moments, many of the marchers are lying dead on the ground below.
02:33But the crowd finally manage to fight their way into the building. Then, for a brief moment, the oppressed become the oppressors as the crowd take their revenge on the uniformed men in the city.
02:38But the crowd finally manage to fight their way into the building. Then, for a brief moment, the oppressed become the oppressors as the crowd take their revenge on the uniformed men inside.
02:45The dividing line between murder and justifiable execution is difficult to find and in the fury of the moment, no one looks for it.
02:52And in the fury of the moment, no one looks for it.
02:59Those freedom fighters who died have been moved further further.
03:06down the street and lie flag-covered in the dust. Around them, the everyday life of Budapest starts again.
03:13The grocery roundsman, whose van has been smashed by a Russian tank, plods his way from house to house with his bicycle.
03:20His tires slashed to ribbons by the broken glass in the road.
03:28And the road is broken.
03:32The tires slashed to ribbons by the broken glass in the road.
03:35The grocery roundsman, whose van has been smashed by a Russian tank, plods his way from house to house with his bicycle, his tires slashed to ribbons by the broken glass in the road.
03:42bicycle, his tyres slashed to ribbons by the broken glass in the road.
04:00Here is one of the dead, the schoolboy. He will be buried in an improvised plot in the
04:05nearby park. One of the men goes off to find the boy's family to tell them of his death.
04:12They must come and identify the body.
04:35The boy's name was Michael Bella Imredi, aged 18 years and 3 months.
04:41Eight minutes ago he had tried to throw a grenade through one of the police barrack windows.
04:46He had missed. Some of his friends had laughed at him. Then a bullet from a police sniper
04:51that hit him in the back and killed him.
04:58The man on the left is...
05:05The man on the left is...
05:08A primary school teacher aged 37. A reserved and quiet man. He only openly joined in the revolution the day before this.
05:15The man on the left is Tamas Varasi, a primary school teacher aged 37. A reserved and quiet man. He only openly joined in the revolution the day before this.
05:23Because, as he said, I can no longer sit still and do nothing when my friends are being killed in the streets outside my home.
05:30Now, he is actively organizing a local first aid post.
05:37The Kalman Jozef Street lies in an industrial suburb called Oypest, which, like the entire capital, has taken on the appearance of a wartime Hungary.
05:44The one small thing that Tamas can find time to do for the Imredy family is to send one of the young boys who knew him at school to take them home.
05:51The Kalman Jozef Street lies in an industrial suburb called Oypest, which like the entire
05:58capital has taken on the appearance of a wartime Hungary.
06:03The one small thing that Tamás can find time to do for the Imredy family is to send one
06:08of the young boys who knew him at school to take them home.
06:18The first aid post is in the cellar at the rear of this ruined house.
06:22It is packed with the wounded from many neighbouring streets.
06:25The conditions down there are not good.
06:27The walls are running with water from the nearby river and there is an acute shortage of dressings.
06:32Only the very seriously wounded can be moved across to the hospital, which is two blocks
06:36away across a road junction still under heavy shell fire.
06:44The name of this girl is Margit Zeke.
06:48Aged 33, she is the fiancé of Tamás, a journalist.
06:53She tries to find time between helping him at the post to finish a series of articles she
06:57is writing for one of the revolutionary newspapers.
07:07These two have both been on their feet all through the night working in the cramped confines
07:11of the cellar dressing the wounded.
07:18This little boy seated in the rubble is called Robert Fodor.
07:23His nickname is Robbie and he is aged 12.
07:27This is his sister Zuzia who is 17.
07:30Her father was killed the day before yesterday in the street fighting.
07:34They both saw it happen.
07:36Zuzia has tried to be practical and put the tragedy out of her mind.
07:41But young Robbie can't and won't let anyone do anything for him, not even his sister.
07:46And that doesn't help her very much.
08:09This very noisy young man's name is Erno Zighetti, a garage hand from Cubania.
08:15He's trying to get everyone to listen as he tries to persuade Margit Zeke to read the
08:19latest article of hers recently published in the Revolutionary Literary Gazette.
08:24At first she doesn't want to, but soon she realises that she has no choice.
08:30Everyone wants to hear the words of freedom she has written.
08:33And for the moment all else is forgotten as they listen to them.
08:47Oh, dear.
09:12The End
09:42On these faces, as each tragedy is relived and talked about,
09:55can be seen a vivid cross-section of the shifting moods of a revolution,
09:59gentleness and hatred, fervour and grief.
10:03And in these varying expressions, and on the faces that reflect them,
10:06can thus be seen the whole enigma of the Hungarian people,
10:10a highly strung and volatile nation, romantic, tempestuous, proud and arrogant of their heritage,
10:18capable both of cruelty and generous kindness.
10:22The Hungarians possess a complex national make-up not easily understood.
10:26This is Aja Bet Shuyok, aged 44.
10:35Her only son was killed yesterday.
10:38Istvan Beric, aged 19.
10:42Parents deported five years ago and not heard of since.
10:45Ivar Rokosz, aged 17.
10:54Has a common sympathy with Istvan, her mother being killed three months ago by security police.
10:59Diogban, aged 37, foreman at a machine factory in Oipest,
11:10and Machas Vida, 40, a charge hand at the same factory, makes strange co-patriots.
11:16For one, Vida, is a social democrat,
11:24and the other, Ban, a staunch communist,
11:27and consequently, they are both forever arguing.
11:30This is Kataline Vardas, aged 18, art student.
11:37For her young years, an advanced cynic and anti-communist.
11:41Laszlo Dondossi, 24, librarian,
11:44and before the revolution, the organiser of a discussion circle forbidden by the security police.
11:50Each of these people, highly individual,
11:53each with conflicting ideals.
11:55Is it therefore too naive to conclude
11:58that the one common belief strong enough to bring these people together
12:02must be their genuine love of their country
12:04and their desire for its freedom?
12:08A desire for which they are obviously prepared to die.
12:15This is an old truck disguised as a military ambulance.
12:19In it, five members of the AVH security police
12:22are trying to escape from the siege of their party headquarters
12:24down in the city centre, but they don't get far.
12:31Called the ARVO,
12:33these are the men who have held down the country
12:35with an iron grip of terror.
12:42What are these men?
12:44Are they traitors and bullying opportunists of the worst kind?
12:48Or are they unwitting dukes?
12:49And if the freedom fighters had actually won the revolution,
12:54would any of them have donned similar uniforms
12:56to hold these men in check?
12:57What are they Internationale?
12:59Don't you will have the英 guide to this leader?
13:02No!
13:10What are you trying to do with them?
13:11Hay!
13:12Have you?
13:13Ha!
13:14Hey!
13:15Hey!
13:15Hey!
13:16Wait!
13:17Stay!
13:18Stay!
13:19Hey!
13:20Hey!
13:20Hey!
13:21Hey!
13:22Hey!
13:23He got the way!
13:25Oh, my God.
13:55By the 30th of October the Soviet forces had withdrawn to the outskirts of the
14:00capital and Imre Noz, the premier, had set up his provisional government. The
14:05revolutionaries were now in complete control of the city.
14:13For four days the people of Budapest lived under the illusion of freedom until
14:19the morning of Sunday November the 4th when Imre Noz broadcast the following
14:23message to the Hungarian people.
14:35This is Imre Noz speaking, chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Hungarian
14:41People's Republic. In the early hours of this morning Soviet troops launched an
14:47attack against our capital city with the obvious intention of overthrowing the
14:51lawful democratic government. Our troops are fighting. The government is in its
14:57place. I hereby inform the people of Hungary and the entire world of this situation.
15:10Searchlights pick out the grim chaos in the rubble as on the evening of the 4th of November Russian tanks pour into the city and
15:17lining the squares and street junctions fire shell after shell into the buildings held by the freedom fighters.
15:23Office blocks, apartment buildings and hospitals are fired on indiscriminately.
15:28Parts of many buildings collapse on their defenders and scores are buried alive.
15:33The noise of gunfire is deafening and everywhere is smoke, brick dust and rubble.
15:38Time and time again students and young children are dragged out from beneath the rubble.
15:43It is terrible to watch.
15:45There is no time to bury the dead. There is not even time to grieve for them.
16:03There is no time to bury the dead. There is not even time to grieve for them.
16:09There has to be a right and wrong in any human conflict.
16:31This most tragic of revolutions can be no exception.
16:35But in any conflict between two major creeds, one of which you believe in,
16:41there has to be a final taking of sides.
16:44And if those who happen to believe, as these Hungarian freedom fighters believed,
16:49had taken a strong moral stand on their behalf at the time when it most mattered,
16:54then it is more than likely that 20,000 of these people need not have given their lives or their liberty for this belief.
17:08Tamash Farashi, dead.
17:12Magit Zake, refugee.
17:16Istvan Berak, executed.
17:19Ivar Rokosz, executed.
17:23Laszlo Horvath, dead.
17:26Diog Ban, killed.
17:30Anton Kelman, dead.
17:35Mihai Kish, executed.
17:39Janos Ziksai, deported.
17:46Refugee, executed.
17:51Reported.
17:55Missing.
17:59Killed.
18:01Nagy Imre.
18:05Nagy Imre, a Magyar Ném köztársaság miniszter tanácsának jelölkezett.
18:11Nagy Imre, a Magyar Ném köztársaság miniszter tanácsának jelölkezett.
18:23Nagy Imre, a Magyar Ném köztársaság miniszter tanácsának jelölkezett tanácsának jelölkezett tanácsának jelölkezett.
18:36Neil также mutuó a Magyar Ném Köztársásak.
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