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A hot summer day six young men and two young women meet at the beach beside a deep river. After a while they go for a swim. At a point where the river is 8 meters deep, one of the boys gets the idea of diving to the bottom, and to bring up a handful of clay as a proof of the feat. The others follow his example. Back on dry land one of the girls suddenly wonders where Gabi is. When they figure out that no one has seen him coming up from the river, they get worried. Gabi's clothes are still on the beach, and they start searching for him along the banks and in the water. Finally they have to call the police, who start dragging the river. The corpse isn't found, and the following days Gabi's friends display different reactions to the loss. Some had unsettled matters with him, which now never can be solved. Some have already started to forget his face. At the third day the body is found. Summer is gone, and the circle of friends disbands. Some go to a bigger city for studies, while others have to stay in the small town and work. Left alone in inconsolable grief is Gabi's grandmother. Gabi's father died a long time ago, and now she has lost also her grandson, her only remaining support and joy in life.
Director: István Gaál
Production: Hunnia Filmstúdió
Running Time: 81’
Language: Hungarian
Country: Hungary
Year: 1964
Main Cast: Andrea Drahota, Marianna Moór, Istvánné Zsipi
Screenplay: István Gaál
Cinematographer: Sándor Sára
Editor: István Gaál
Music: András Szőllősy, Antonio Vivaldi, Girolamo Frescobaldi
Sound: Tibor Rajky
Trailer:
István Gaál
Kossuth Prize-winning director, photographer, one of the pillars, and an international representative of modern Hungarian filmmaking. After school leaving exams, he worked as a labourer, locksmith and technician. He was a student at the faculty of directing of the Academy of Drama and Film between 1953–58. His unconventional diploma film, the musical-rhythmed, poetic documentary Pályamunkások (Section Gang, 1958) was a hit in Vienna. Thanks to this exposure he was able to attend the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome from 1959 until 1961. Along with his creative colleague Sándor Sára, he was a founding member of the Béla Balázs Studio. They were cinematographers on each other’s films at the Béla Balázs Studio and the Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio. He was cinematographer on Sándor Sára’s work Cigányok (Gipsies, 1962) that sparked the documentary trend of Hungarian new wave. His films examined the relationship between intellectuals and power in the crisis situations of everyday life, or in classical adaptations, primarily from a moral aspect. His first full-length feature film, Sodrásban (Current, 1963), became a symbol of the renewal of Hungarian film as a consequence of its remarkable visuality developed out of the landscape, its modern idiomatic tools, and its individual and community subject matter. His next two films, Zöldár (Green Years, 1965) and Keresztelő (Baptism, 1968) examined ethical issues of his generation from a historical perspective. These were followed by Magasiskola (The Falcons, 1970) adapted from the novel by Miklós Mészöly. It is a report of the individual and closed organization, the Kádár dictatorship narrated in the form of a parable and it took the jury prize at Cannes in 1970. His next work that achieved considerable international acclaim, Holt vidék (Dead Landscape, 1971), is an unusual psychological analysis based on sociographic facts. His works have a strong musical structure. He also directed an opera film Orfeusz és Eurydiké (Orpheus and Eurydice, 1985). He shot an outstanding documentary Gyökerek (Roots, 2000) about Béla Bartók, Hungary’s greatest composer, based on his diaries. He himself wrote and edited the films. He taught at the film academy in Rome, in Puna (1985) and Bangalore (1994) in India.