Cinema
The Revolt of Job
Jób lázadása
Synopsis
A village on the banks of the Tisza, in 1943. Jób and Róza, well-off elderly Jewish peasants who have lost their seven children, adopt Lackó, an orphan raised in the Catholic faith, for money and through a legal detour, in order to have an heir. Jób teaches him the Torah, the wisdom of the world and the practices of Jewish life; after a difficult start, the child proves lively and eager to learn. But fascism is drawing near to the village.
Context
The film takes the Book of Job as its background, but its hero does not resign himself: adopting a Christian child after losing his own is his way of defying fate. Gyöngyössy and Kabay wrote the screenplay with Katalin Petényi and Katalin Gyöngyössy. Ferenc Zenthe and Hédi Temessy play the couple, Gábor Fehér the child. Released on 1 December 1983, the film competed the following year for the Oscar for non-English-language works; it was restored in 2020.
Who it is for
A slow, luminous country film, whose gentleness hides nothing of what is approaching; listed in France under the title La Révolte de Job.
Prizes and reception
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1984, and awarded a prize at the Sanremo film festival.