I just had the opportunity to see Istvan Gaal's THE FALCONS on a screen. It's a good example of the seventies' films that trust the spectator and give away only little information on the characters' backgrounds and their destination in life. The film comes close to Brechtian alienation effect and there's simply no one to get deeply interested in. Hence the film shifts the spectator to watch closely for the political undertones and subtle messages. There's also the rhythm of the falcon training and the dull imagery of the Hungarian pusta which add to the overall experience.
The film seemed to be to many quite compelling. I chatted for a while with a friend of mine and she said: "What was the meaning of that?" I think it's best - as the previous (and only!) commentator said - to interpret THE FALCONS as a satire on the Communist system. The film has pretty weird, almost surrealist symbolism for which there's no explanations or easy give-aways, but then again Gaál has said himself that he's not interested in substance, only in structure. Maybe this was the only way he got his films made in the Socialist Hungary. I hope this film would be released as a good quality DVD. The old 35mm copy I saw yesterday was full of scratches and the colours were faded. There were two subtitles: in English and in Finnish. The English ones were at the bottom of the screen and the Finnish ones were in the middle!
