LE GRAND CAHIER
Hungary, 2013, 112 minutes, Colour.
Laszlo and Andras Gyemont, Piroska Molnar, Ulrich Thomson, Ulrich Matthes
Directed by Janos Szasz.
This is a very demanding film to watch.
The setting is Hungary, 1944, German occupation, disruption of families, children having to be refugees and going to family farms in the country.
This is a focus on children, especially identical twins, Laszlo and Andras Gyemont, who have a steady life in the city but when their father is arrested, the mother has to take them to her own mother whom she has not seen for 20 years. The old woman is a farmer, angry, dismissive of the children, making them work to earn their food.
The father has urged his sons to keep a notebook, writing up all their experiences so that they will have a record of the war.
The boys decide that they will fight and torture each other so that they will be able to overcome all pain. The grandmother despises them and treats them badly. An occupying German officer is much more sympathetic. They encounter a girl with a harelip and become friends. They also encounter a deserter in the woods who freezes to death. When they want to get some boots, they go to the local shopkeeper who is very kind to them – and, when the Jews are rounded up, they discover him dead. They are given a bath and some food by young woman who turns out to be anti-Semitic and they set an explosion that destroys her face.
This is a very harsh picture of what happens to young boys in war and how they cope or how they overcome their disadvantages.
There is further drama with the return of the mother and baby sister, the return of the father from prison and his attempt to escape at the border, the incoming Russian soldiers and their brutality and rape, the boys having to face one of the hardest of experiences, separation.
A strong 21st-century perspective on the war and children.
1. Films on World War II? The traditions? Hungary? 21st-century perspective?
2. Hungary in 1944, the city, homes, comfortable family, the father leaving, in prison? The children becoming refugees? Taken to the farm, the house, the animals, chopping wood, their work, experience in the woods, the town, the harshness of life, the shoemaker and his kindness, the hut, the invading soldiers, the woman and bathing the boys, the occupation, the rounding up of the Jews?
3. The title, a record of their experiences, the goals of writing their experiences? The importance of the animation throughout the credits, the recurrence during the film and giving some nuance to the story?
4. The focus on the children, their age, place in the family, life in the city, their studies, bond with their parents? Intelligence? The farewell to the father? Refugees? Identical twins, shared life, the mother and the train trip, revealing the story of the grandmother, her background, poisoning her husband? Her mother, their mother leaving, the sadness, pursuing her? The grandmother ousting them, calling them bastards, hungry, working, earning their food? The grandmother’s antagonism, abuse, killing the chicken and eating it? The refusal to eat, drinking water? Their taking the grandmother’s best chicken? In the town, the vegetable stall? The girl thief, the pursuit, her harelip, their friendship with her? Her mother? The girl being raped by the incoming soldiers, the burning of the hut? The German occupation, the visits of the German officer, his liking the boys? The decision about pain, bashing each other, whipping, pain not meaning anything to them? Survival? No letters from their mother, waylaying the postman, getting the letters and clothes? The encounter with the frozen deserter and taking his gun? Lying? The mother’s arrival, the baby, their not wanting to leave, the explosion, the mother’s death and burial? The shoe seller, his kindness with the boots? The roundup of the Jews, his death? The girl, bathing them, giving them food, her anti-Semitism? The explosion and the effect on her face? Their father’s arrival, eating with him, the planned escape, over the fence, the mines and his death? The writing their journal, the details of the story, the issue of separation, one going into the minefield, the other remaining
5. Themes of children in war, being abandoned, harsh treatment, hungry, hard work, issue of pain, bonds and support? The notebook of the title?
6. The character of the grandmother, hard, poisoning her husband, her daughter absent for 20 years, no news? Her being angry with her daughter, with the boys, ousting, making them earn their food, the hard work? Her drinking, her jewels, the treasure in her husband’s coffin? The occupying Germans? The stall in the town? The passing of time, having a stroke, the boys dragging her back home, her daughter arriving, her further anger, the father arriving? The poison, her death and the boys burying her?
7. The girl and her harelip, her mother, the harrowing story, rape and death?
8. The shoemaker, the Jews, the woman and her anti-Semitism?
9. The episode with the frozen deserter?
10. The German occupation, the officer, the rounding up of the Jews, harsh treatment, the guards at the border? Their leaving? The new forces coming in, brutality, the Russians?
11. The interim peace? The future for the boys? A sombre reflection on war?
