Original subtitles

A FILM BY PÉTER BERGENDY

Done!

Thanks.

On behalf of the wife, too.

Workers, compatriots!

I inform you that nationwide,

both in the capital and the countryside,

the open, armed attack against the Hungarian People's Republic

has been crushed.

Most of those who took part in the armed uprising

have either put down or thrown away their weapons.

Some armed individuals and smaller armed groups

are still wandering Budapest

and on the roads leading northwest out of Budapest…

There was an armed uprising?

Nazis.

Where did they come from? What did they want?

They wanted the old system back.

But the people kicked them in the balls.

Good, then.

Before I forget.

Volume two.

Thank you.

Comrade Kassai…

this might sound stupid, but…

you're my best friend.

Come on!

HUNGARIAN-RUSSIAN DICTIONARY

Beck, visitor.

LENIN, SELECTED WORKS

Fucking hell.

Please.

Comrade, would you leave us?

Ten years.

Flew by, eh?

I've got a job for you.

I've retired.

You need to crack a safe.

Only you can do it.

Actually, it's the Trezor.

You need to crack it again.

What for?

It's legal work. Let that be enough.

Only if you knock off five years.

One.

Four.

Three.

Three years off my sentence.

If you can crack it.

I already did once.

This is different.

Interior Ministry of the Hungarian People's Republic?

What happened to the bank?

The building was nationalized six years ago

and the ministry moved in.

The Trezor still exists, but instead of gold bars

it holds top secret documents.

And why do I have to crack it?

The keys got lost.

The police can't open their own safe?

Does this have anything to do with the Nazi uprising?

Goddamn.

If anybody asks, you're a locksmith.

That is what I am.

Let's go! More!

Come on, come on!

Let's go!

Let's go!

Let's go already!

Nothing.

This?

No, no, no!

Comrade Danilov!

The building.

It's all iron and steel.

Nyet hand grenade.

Nyet boom boom.

Mechanic.

Mechanic.

Mechanic.

-Mechanic. -Alright?

Thank you, Comrade Danilov.

Here are the tools.

I only need a stethoscope.

-What? -A doctor's stethoscope.

-Where the hell do I get one? -And dead silence.

Dead silence?

Otherwise it stays like this.

Is the alarm off?

Yes.

Okay, I'll go upstairs with Danilov.

I'll tell the two soldiers to guard the stairs.

So when the door opens, you'll have a few minutes

to find and burn a top secret file.

My file.

This is still the legal part, right?

Yeah.

We're here to get on people's good sides.

You on mine, me on theirs.

If I burn the file, they'll see the smoke.

Then smuggle it out in your underpants.

Five years.

-Four. -Five.

Okay, make it five.

But if you trick me, you'll rot in prison for the rest of your life.

Münnich is here.

Comrade Danilov, Münnich is coming.

Comrade.

Two guards. Up.

They guard the mechanic.

Comrade.

Quiet. Complete silence.

Tools, chisel, hammer. What quiet?

Two guards. Up.

They stay here and guard the mechanic.

Comrade.

Complete silence.

Thirty minutes.

Thirty minutes.

-Thirty minutes? -Yes.

-Silence? -Yes.

He's afraid to reveal his professional secrets.

Yes.

-Yes. -Follow me!

Find me a doctor's stethoscope. Don't ask where.

There's still fighting in Kőbánya, at the Sharp Corner.

In Óbuda at the Schmidt Palace.

And in Újpest.

Csepel is showing the most heated resistance.

Our losses are serious. They have artillery and…

Captain Danilov.

Ferenc Münnich, Minister of the Interior.

Comrade Münnich, I've secured the building.

Thank you.

Pardon me.

Good day, Comrade Münnich.

Do we know each other?

Kálmán Honti, state security lieutenant.

I heard your broadcast for loyalists to report to the ministry.

I came promptly.

I met Comrade Danilov and he asked me to help with opening…

Greetings!

The Csepel forces are blowing up the roads…

…to find a locksmith.

…and the bridges might be next.

We'll crush them like all the counter-revolutionaries.

-Is everything under control here? -Absolutely, comrade.

Because, you know, this building belonged to the rebels until November 4th.

We swept them out, but we couldn't get into the safe.

The keys?

Keys? They seem to be lost.

We must call a locksmith.

Locksmith? We did. More than one.

Maybe Comrade Honti's man can open it.

Where did you say you were from?

Department 4, internal security.

Thank you.

Where did you learn Russian?

Prison.

I was a guard.

How do you do it? How do you crack it? What's the secret?

Ear and hand.

They think they're partisans.

Militiamen, miners and army officers assist them.

Luckily, we have informers among them.

It's only a question of time before we liquidate them.

The rebels got hold of a Katyusha.

Significant resistance has been reported

from Szekszárd, Pécs, Tatabánya, Miskolc and Sátoraljaújhely.

Report to me when the safe is open.

We'll do so, Comrade Münnich.

I'm a fucking ace.

ARCHIVES

Yes. Good.

Take it.

Oh, shit!

We'll see what he can do with this.

Shit, we're not doing this again.

Mechanic!

Mechanic!

Mechanic!

Where is he?

Stop! Stop!

Open up! Open up!

Open up! Open up!

Stop!

Hands up!

Stop!

I've killed before!

We're in deep shit.

Beck! It's me! You hear me in there?

Open up! Open up, goddamn you!

He opened it, then locked it?

He didn't lock it.

-It was somebody else. -Who?

A tuxedo guy.

What tuxedo guy?

Our country and people have seen such grave situations before.

Our nation has always triumphed with unified strength, enthusiasm

and fervent patriotism.

How joyful and encouraging

that we have not been abandoned in our struggle.

Millions of our brethren in socialist countries,

but also in capitalist countries,

anxiously watch to see if we can defeat the counter-revolutionary hydra.

I believe we will, and I know we are over the worst.

Workers, peasants, intellectuals, compatriots!

The Hungarian Revolutionary Working Peasant Government

unwaveringly believes in our people's creative strength.

Comrade Münnich.

Yes?

Comrade Honti is here. He says it's urgent.

What did you say? Hon…

Honti. Honti.

Comrade Honti.

Where did you serve before the 23rd?

Under Comrade Szélesi.

Comrade Szélesi was shot by the counter-revolutionaries.

And I was badly beaten.

Tell me everything about this locksmith.

Everything.

Honestly.

His name is János Beck.

Inmate of Csillag Prison.

Serving 20 years for bank robbery.

20 years for bank robbery? A bit much, no?

He killed a policeman, Comrade Münnich.

And you think it's a good idea to bring a murderer

to the interior ministry?

The officer he killed was my friend.

I despise Beck with all my heart.

But he's the best locksmith I know.

Who's the other man?

In the tuxedo.

Maybe he's with us?

But then why did he lock us out?

And if he's not with us, then…

Comrade Münnich, I accept the consequences.

Don't worry, you will.

But I want to fix this.

Smoke those bastards out.

What the fuck do you all have against me?

Let me go, you hear?

You're destroying me.

First my wrist, then my hand.

Sorry, you wanted to shoot me.

How do you have the stomach for it?

To turn against the nation? Your own people.

Wait, wait. You've got me all wrong. I'm János Beck.

My only task was to open this door, and then I'm gone.

Goddamn secret police! Don't lie!

I've been a prison inmate for ten years.

I used to be a locksmith. That's why I'm here.

Why did you attack me?

You pointed a gun at me. I shit myself.

Listen, here's my plan.

You let me go, and I slip through that door.

Wait, wait, hear me out!

Let me finish, and then I'll shut up.

We never met.

I didn't even see the corpse…

Why did you open the cabinet?

Shit, I was looking for smokes.

Cigarettes?

I haven't had one in ten years.

So, will you let me go?

What did you say your name was?

János Beck.

Wait here.

I'll just wait for you here then, okay?

Hey, get me some water?

Find the floor plan.

I need every opening, every exit, even the secret ones.

And get me the old bank president.

I don't know his name or address. Find him.

PERSONAL FILE

János Beck, state security file.

Born in 1914. Training: locksmith.

Twenty years sentence for bank robbery and…

murder.

The murder isn't true.

It says so here.

I was framed.

There was no work after the war. Not for anyone.

Bread cost a million pengő on Tuesday, and on Wednesday

when my baby girl was born, it was 10 million.

Yeah.

That's how it was.

You could choose: starve as an honest man

or survive not-so-honestly.

Back in '46, this Trezor was a big bank's safe

full of gold bars.

And I needed gold, because the pengő wasn't worth shit.

I was a genius locksmith.

Shit!

But an amateur criminal.

Unfortunately, two detectives were nearby.

One of them, Kálmán Honti,

wanted the loot too.

-Kálmán, what are you doing? Put it back. -Why?

Because we're police officers.

There's enough for you too.

Don't be stupid. Put it back!

This is nothing for them.

But for us, our families, it's the future.

Take it!

I'll count to three.

And then what? You'll shoot me?

One.

Two.

Okay! You're right.

He killed his partner?

Yeah.

And why did he let you live?

As a scapegoat.

I tried to prove my innocence in court.

They believed him.

I got twenty years.

For homicide.

Innocently.

I haven't seen my family for ten years.

So you're the only killer here.

I took his gun.

And that too.

But I didn't kill him.

I had a concert on Saturday night. On the 3rd.

We celebrated the victorious revolution till dawn.

And then they came back.

Who did?

The Ruskies.

This way, not that way.

I hid in here.

It was the closest.

I thought I'd gain time till I thought of something.

There wasn't anyone here, just me.

I only found the corpse later on.

And why did you hide it?

I didn't want to be with him.

Rebel youth, we speak to those of you who are still fighting.

Enough bloodshed.

We Hungarians are so few, let us not waste the blood…

Try it there.

Thank you.

Here.

The only entrance.

And this?

What's this?

-Maybe the ventilation shaft. -Ventilation?

Ventilation!

I'll go check.

You said you were fleeing from the Ruskies.

Why? Are you a Nazi?

How long have you been here?

Three days. Or four.

Have you eaten anything?

They use this as a bomb shelter too.

Thanks.

Beck! You hear me?

Beck!

Beck!

It's me, you hear?

Beck, are you there?

You hear me in there?

Come out, Beck!

You hear? Come out!

Beck!

Ventilation shaft.

Can they enter through it?

Come out!

For God's sake or you'll be sorry!

Beck, you hear?

Come out 'cause if I have to go in, you'll be fucking sorry!

Beck! It's me!

-Honti. -You hear me in there?

He's the cop?

-Beck! Are you there? -Yeah.

What's he doing here if he's so fucking rich?

Come out, goddamnit! You hear?

You'll hang, Beck! You'll hang for this!

You hear? You'll hang!

This is more than 20 years now!

Goddamn you!

Listen.

The last thing I need now is to get blamed for this murder too.

So you'll go back to prison?

At least they leave me in peace there.

To serve ten more years? Innocently?

You have a better idea?

Let's defect.

We'll go to Austria or Switzerland.

Anywhere far from this fucking country.

But first we need to get out of here, no?

I have an idea.

But first I've got to know how we stand.

You already know, don't you?

Can I trust you?

The shaft is impassable.

It's too narrow. He can't get out through there.

-The bank president? -He wasn't home.

Then ask his neighbors, maybe he's hiding. Let's go.

I don't know what we should do.

You got that because you knocked me out.

And that because of the shit situation you put me in!

See you!

If you open the door now, they'll execute me.

You'll just tell them the corpse was already here.

That's not why they'll execute me.

-Then why? -I'm a revolutionary.

-Like I said, a Nazi! -Fuck no!

Don't give me that.

The radio said you wanted to overthrow the People's Republic with weapons.

Believe me, not the radio!

I was there. You were in a prison.

Dirty scoundrel!

The whole nation rose up. Everybody.

A whole country chanted, "Ruskies, go home!"

And they answered by firing into the crowd,

killing women and children on the streets of Budapest.

Fuck off.

Swabians.

Decree.

Enemies of the system.

Confiscation of all possessions.

Deportation.

Germany.

1947.

What did you say? Austria or Switzerland?

How about Germany?

Fire, water, ruled out. We can't risk the safety of the archives.

Let's close off the ventilation shaft.

They'll have enough…

How do you say it? Oxygen.

-Oxygen. -Yes.

It'll run out sometime.

-Do you need them dead or alive? -What difference does it make?

Can we send gas in through the shaft?

Or a tranquilizer to knock them out?

They have gas masks inside.

Yes, there are gas masks.

Because this is a…

-Bomb shelter. -Yes.

Here.

What's there?

A walled up passage. It leads next door.

-And what's next door? -The Gresham Palace.

-That's your big idea? -Yes.

And if you've been here three days, why didn't you start?

-Good day. -Good day.

Let's see…

Fucking great.

That's as far as I got, but together we'd finish in a few hours.

Tools?

-Won't they hear? -Hasn't been a problem so far.

Wait a moment. You say there's another exit?

-Sure there is. -Show me.

It's there.

There? There's nothing there.

Because it's walled up.

-This is a new floor plan, no? -Yes.

Some 50 years ago, before my time,

the Gresham Palace cellar belonged to the bank.

-For junk storage. -And between the two cellars?

There's a passage.

Here.

How did your family get to Germany?

The file says they were deported as enemies of the system.

And you still defend this system?

State Security!

Did they really kill women and children?

But who? And why?

How did you become a communist?

In prison. I read a lot.

And have you ever met a living communist?

Yeah.

Comrade Kassai. One of the guards.

The stuff in books is nice and good,

but reality is very different.

But the land belongs to those who cultivate it, no?

In theory.

We kicked out the lords, closed the banks.

-Factories belong to the workers. -But actually, to the state.

And what the state owns, the party owns.

But there's freedom, equality and brotherhood, no?

There's servitude, exploitation and hatred.

Well…

Maybe things are going bad for your kind, no?

Who's "my kind"?

Those who did well during the Horthy regime.

There were elite both then and now.

Both justified themselves with their own ideology.

The communists' ideology is more progressive.

It might be, but they use it for the same thing.

Then the problem is not the theory.

The problem is people.

Human nature, get it?

People don't want to be free.

They don't want to be equal.

I do.

Because you're an idealist.

I'm a Stalinist.

At least this morning I still was.

Did they harm you?

The music academy in Vienna offered me a scholarship.

But they wouldn't give me a passport.

So I was forced to defect.

I was about to cross the border when they caught me

and took me to forced labor camp at Recsk.

My father was imprisoned

because he didn't report my defection.

My mother was fired.

My brother ended up a utility worker

because the university wouldn't accept him.

Recsk was really bad.

Beatings, torture, humiliation.

I served three years.

They let me go after Stalin died.

I walked down the street all filthy

and straight into a music shop.

After a three-year hiatus,

I sat down and really badly

played the Chopin that once got me into the Vienna Academy.

It was an autocracy here.

A dictatorship.

But what's happened now? Truly.

Truly?

What happened is that everyone had enough,

all at once.

The party members and non-members,

the soldiers and civilians, equally.

And for the first time in, I don't know,

a thousand years,

the whole fucking country wanted the same thing.

For the Ruskies to get the hell out

and take communism back where it came from.

And then what happened?

They fired into the crowd.

I cried when Stalin died.

Me too. In joy.

This is it. Let's go!

-That's them. -No!

Well, shit. What'll we do now?

At least we tried.

Wait. They won't win that easy.

Don't pat it.

Slam into it!

What are you looking for?

Honti, the man you heard before,

asked me to burn his file before the Ruskies found it.

I wonder why?

I'll put the corpse back in the meantime.

Put on his uniform.

If we have to run, your tuxedo will be obvious.

Try and hit the hole where the brick is out already.

Let's go. Come on.

-I found Honti's file. -Would you help me?

It says that Honti was fired from State Security weeks ago.

He'd been embezzling the operative treasury for years.

He spent the money on whores and gambling.

At least now we know where all the stolen gold went.

And all they did was fire him?

Szélesi, his superior,

writes that he'll report him at the end of October.

But the revolution broke out then.

And Honti wasn't charged.

Even if he burns the file,

his superior will still remember.

Unless Szélesi is already dead.

It's coming from here.

That's it! One more over there!

Let's go.

What the hell is this?

I can't see anything.

What is this?

Stop!

This is a…

A fucking elevator.

I guess they used it to pull up the gold bars.

-Up where? -Who cares?

It matters what's waiting up there.

Beck!

Beck!

Are you there?

Beck!

Okay. Keep going.

There needs to be a…

Shine the light in here.

Look. There's the rope.

Now.

Fine.

Pull.

I'll pull you up.

And who'll pull you up?

-I won't leave you here. -Fuck that. Let's go.

You go then.

If they catch you, they'll hang you.

-I got you mixed up in this. -But you're younger. Let's go.

But your family's waiting.

You can play piano and I can't. So you go.

Climb in. Let's go.

Hold on. Wait.

Put this bastard's file someplace

where they'll find it for sure.

And if you're ever in Germany,

find my wife and little girl.

Tell them…

I will.

That's it!

Thank you.

I won't forget you.

Shut up.

Okay. Stop.

Beck!

Beck!

Stop!

Stop!

Stop!

Stop!

Where's the file?

Where's the file?

I have no idea.

Get him out of here.

Attention!

Homonnai…

Hoppál…

Shit.

Where's the other man?

We're still looking, Comrade Münnich.

Are you sure there were two?

Yes, he has to be here somewhere.

-Comrade Honti! -Yes?

Comrade Honti.

Catch the bastard.

Was it him?

Did he lock the door?

Yes, him.

Dirty counter-revolutionary.

The revolutionary working peasant government's call to the Hungarian nation.

Honti.

The newly formed government turns to the Hungarian nation

with the following appeal.

My Hungarian brethren, workers, peasants, soldiers, comrades!

These are hard days for our nation.

The power of the workers and peasants,

the sacred cause of socialism is in danger.

The past 12 years are in danger…

Talk, you bastard, or I swear I'll kill you!

Comrade Honti,

-I did what you told me to. -Oh, yeah?

I tried to find the file, but it wasn't there.

It wasn't there? And why did you lock the door?

I panicked. I was afraid to get blamed for this too.

I don't believe you.

That's not what happened. There was someone else there.

Just me and the corpse.

He got upstairs through the elevator shaft and escaped.

Who was it?

I'll ask one last time.

Comrade Honti, I completed the task.

You want to fuck me over?

-You promised me five years. -You know what you'll get?

Five more years if you don't talk. Or ten, I don't care.

It won't be hard to convince the prosecutor

that the safe-cracker has killed again.

That corpse was days old. It's easy to prove.

Then why did you panic?

Comrade Honti, I was alone.

I didn't kill anybody.

I locked myself in because I really, truly panicked.

I won't rest till you rot in here forever.

Kálmán Honti, you're under arrest.

Why?

What was it like outside?

Fucking great.

I managed to get you

a copy of Materialism and Empirio…

Empirio-criticism.

That's it.

Should I bring it in?

No. Thanks.

Is something wrong?

10 YEARS LATER

Beck.

It's time.

So, we'll keep in touch.

Do you have somewhere to go?

Do you know him?

No.

Be smart.

János Beck?

That's me.

Put this on.

Why the fuck did you come home?

To play piano.

Will you listen?

-Where should I sit? -Come.

Here's your ticket.