EN: ‘The Witness’ has been the No. 1 cult classic in Hungary since the 1980s, and it proved to be extremely popular at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. Almost every second of its sayings are part of the Hungarian vocabulary today.
‘The Witness’ presents the constant conflict between power and the average person. The film follows the life of Joseph, an ordinary dike keeper. His life becomes a roller coaster ride following a ´heinous´ crime, illegally slaughtering Desiree, his family’s pet pig. He is either intermittently elevated into an important position, generally reserved for the communist elite, or jailed. One failure after another, the incompetent and ´ideologically under-educated´ Joseph is rising higher and higher through the ranks of the communist echelon, all the while remaining completely clueless about his promotions. Until one day, when he is called upon to return the ´favour´ .