56 Drops of Blood
Among the 1956-themed films shown at the festival were Court Record - In Memoriam Péter Mansfeld, an animated film by Zoltán Szilágyi Varga, 56 Drops of Blood, a musical by Attila Bokor, and Children of Glory, which has sold nearly half a million tickets in Hungary and was praised by US President George W. Bush at a special White House screening last year.
56 Drops of Blood
Yevgeniya Tirdatova, a film critic for the newspaper Noviye Izvestiya, wrote that Children of Glory, directed by Krisztina Goda and produced by Andrew Vajna, was of "doubtful artistic value".
Tridatova wrote that Goda has given one of the darkest periods in Hungarian history a treatment similar to the treatment she gave sex in her previous film Just Sex and Nothing Else.
"The film (with the exception of the title) is full of pathos, but it follows the Hollywood recipe: everything is made easy to understand...so younger generations, who live in completely different times, can easily digest this historical lesson like popcorn," Tridatova wrote.
"Handsome young heroes - the girl: a university student, the boy: Hungary best water polo player - struggle for a true cause against an evil empire. Neither the close-up kiss, nor the 'I love you' is missing, while around them there are explosions, displays of suffering and death."
"The girl goes proudly to her death, certain to the last minute of the arrival of the American rescuers. It is strange that Budapest is still there, as it looks as if world war three has broken out on the screen....The Russians are terrible murders, of course...not Soviets, but Ruskies and Commies."
Tirdatova notes that Children of Glory is "not exactly festival material", still, it has been included on the programme of this year's Berlinale.
