Erzsébet Bori
Torte à la Russe
Ibolya Fekete: Az Apokalipszis gyermekei (Children of the Apocalypse); Bolshe Vita * Judit Elek: Mondani a mondhatatlant (To Speak About the Unspeakable) * Péter Gothár: Hagyjállógva Vászka (Vaska Easeoff)
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Both the language and visual idiom of Vaska Easeoff is rooted, or at any rate seeks its place, in urban folklore, in prison subculture.
The wish-fulfilling tales of Soviet prisoners and a Hungarian filmmaker at the end of the millennium are closer to one another than one would think. Given the minuscule funds available, Gothár too worked in the spirit of "all power to the imagination!" The film was originally shot on video and later transferred to film, and even this has been turned to advantage. The possibilities of video, sneered at by many, are put to maximum use, with shots running riot, changes of rhythm, red, tinting, archival and new footage, fused in the work of cameraman Francisco Gózon. György Orbán combines his original music with adaptations of contemporary revolutionary songs and popular Soviet tunes. The Russian cast is brilliant, led by Maxim Sergeyev, Yevgeny Sidhikhin and Valya Kasianova, playing in Russian which is neither dubbed nor subtitled. Their words are interpreted, commented on, anticipated by a Hungarian narrator (Gábor Máté). It may sound a cheap solution, but more importantly, this is much better. For one, Hungarian audiences, most of whom have undergone eight to ten years of compulsory Russian at school - and thus cannot understand a word - listen to Pushkin's language as if to music. And, after all, tales are told by storytellers and spread by word of mouth. Further meaning is gained through the shift in how sight and sound relate, now synchronous, now asynchronous or contrasted, and the idea of a Hungarian film in Russian sounds much less hair-raising.
The story is set in Bolshevik Petrograd some time in the 1920s, after Lenin's death but before Stalin's reign of terror. Vaska, the "thief of the town", has struck it big but uses the proceedings to pay off the debts of a man he never even knew, just to ensure that he can rest in peace. Quite soon Vaska and his wench Luvnya have nothing but empty vodka bottles in their apartment, but relief arrives in the person of Vanyka, the "thief of the village". With this a series of incredible adventures begins. The two retrieve the "blood-reeking sardine tin opener" from a grifferidger's nest, use it to break into the vaults of the State Bank in Petrograd and lay their hands on the entire collective wealth of the people. The police, the army and the NKVD are breathing down their necks, but Vaska and Vanyka outwit them all. When Vaska is finally caught, his friend even manages to bring him back to life. The happy ending is complete - Vaska and Luvnya swear eternal fidelity to one another, the mile-long wedding table groans under bottle after bottle of vodka. However, the faithful friend has to take his leave. Vanyka, the village thief, is none other than the unknown dead man, who had come back from the grave to return Vaska's good deed.
According to the piece by László Bratka on which the script was based, this story of Vanyka and Vaska was told to one Lev Gordon by a fellow prisoner when working on the White Sea Canal. Whether that is fact or fiction is irrelevant, for Vaska Easeoff convinces the viewers that tales are always more true and real and are worth a thousand times more than the White Sea Canal, which did exist, or absurd, never finally completed projects.
 Photo Péter Kornis |
Erzsébet Bori
is our regular film critic.
