Cinema
The Falcons
Magasiskola
István Gaál · 1970
Synopsis
A young trainee agronomist arrives at an isolated station on the plain, where falcons are trained to hunt the birds that ravage the crops. Guided by Lilik, the master of the place, he is initiated into the training and its demanding rites, and observes the strict hierarchy of the household and Teréz, the only woman, free in her manner. Little by little, the initial fascination gives way to unease.
Context
The film is drawn from a short novel by Miklós Mészöly, written in the fifties and published in 1967. Elemér Ragályi is credited with the colour photography, and András Szőllősy's music mixes bird cries and electronic sounds with the instruments. The training of birds of prey serves as a figure for a society under constraint: critics read in it a parable of domination, made under a regime that forbade saying so openly. Gaál was at once its director, its screenwriter and its editor.
Who it is for
A colour film in which music and bird calls matter as much as the dialogue; released in France on DVD by Potemkine.
Prizes and reception
Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1970, ex aequo with The Strawberry Statement by Stuart Hagmann.
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