The Witness

In 1950s Hungary, a dam keeper on the Danube runs into an old friend whose life he once saved. The friend has since become a powerful politician, and the reunion draws the modest worker into a judicial process in which he is expected to testify against a former comrade. The story unfolds as a comedy set against the Stalinist purges of the era.

The film was directed by Péter Bacsó, who also wrote the screenplay, and it stands sixth in the run of features he directed, between Dashing Girls (1974) and Electric Schock (1979). Ferenc Kállai plays József Pelikán, with Lajos Őze, Zoltán Fábri, Béla Both, Georgette Metzradt and Róbert Rátonyi among the 23 credited cast members.

Released in Hungary in June 1979, the film runs 108 minutes and was produced by Mafilm. It holds an 8.6 rating from around 8,500 votes on IMDb and an 8.2 rating from a much smaller pool of voters on TMDB. The wide gap in vote counts suggests a large and enduring audience on the first platform and only limited attention on the second.