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Although Grinder has garnered plaudits and prizes, it has reached relatively few cinema-goers. But the story attracted the attention of Elemér Ragályi. The Pusoma case has been turned into a feature film by him, based on Elemér Magyar's abovementioned docu-drama. Ragályi's No Mercy is able to provide a valid diagnosis because it does not seek to make scapegoats of specific individuals, nor does it find the explanation in the malice or prejudice of the investigating police officers or the judge. It finds it in how the Hungarian police service operates-a system that Komenczi aptly called "the grinder". Both films present the spectacle of a horrifyingly soulless machine. The in-built checks and balances have failed in succession, each of the protagonists-the accused, his cellmate, the policeman, the defence lawyer, the judge-twists and turns in the runaway machine, which now moves solely according to its own rules.
Behind them lurk systemic faults which are exacerbated by the fact that those who are supposed to be serving justice are unwilling to confront the failures in this and comparable cases. The police and the Public Prosecution Office are protesting to the present day that they did not set a foot wrong, and that Dénes Pusoma caused his own downfall by displaying "deceptive behaviour". Ragályi, while reconstructing the events with documentary truthfulness, deploys
| all the devices of the feature film-wonderful acting, atmospheric camera work, dream sequences-to make unfamiliar situations and figures something that viewers can experience directly. Emotionally unstable, not exactly sharp-witted or saintly, the young Roma is an unlikely movie hero. Yet, as portrayed by Gábor Nagypál, he is nevertheless able to arouse our affection and compassion. The makers of the film, to their great credit, have studiously avoided all the clichés of prison and courtroom dramas. In one scene Dénes watches an episode in the American TV series Petrocelli in which the lawyer pulls out all the stops to secure his innocent client's release. This is something Dénes himself can only dream about. It is no coincidence that the director has a background as a superb cameraman: here, with his own son, Márton Ragályi, behind the camera, he is able to create a powerful pictorial world, beautifully highpointed by the music at exceptionally dramatic points in the story.
No Mercy is more than an important new film. Following its premiere, something long awaited actually came to pass: the court that was proceeding on the Pusoma case finally ordered an inquiry into what lessons could be learnt from the affair. And it was decided that lay assessors from minority (i.e. Roma) groups were to be brought into the work of local magistrate's courts.  |
