Angi Vera

Pál Gábor's "Angi Vera" (spelled Vera Angi when written western style*) tells a story that probably happened more than a few times in real life. The title character (Vera Pap) is a young woman working in a hospital in post-WWII Hungary. When she complains about the unsanitary conditions in the hospital, they send her to a re-education camp. In the camp, she falls in love with another prisoner (Tamás Dunai), while informers ensure that nothing will be pleasant in the camp.

The main thing that I derived from "Angi Vera" is how little changed socially in Eastern Europe after WWII. As with the Nazis, the Soviet-backed governments were all about cronyism, resulting in inefficient industry and unsafe working conditions. In a way, it came full-circle into the US: Bush's appointment of a horse trainer as FEMA director -- in addition to moving FEMA to the Department of Homeland Security, thereby turning it into a bureaucratic nightmare -- resulted in Hurricane Katrina destroying New Orleans.

Anyway, this is certainly a good movie. It's always important to keep this history alive, especially as cronyism and corruption persist the world over. Also starring Erzsi Pásztor, Éva Szabó, László Halász and László Horváth.

*Hungary uses the East Asian name order, in which the family name goes in front. Unlike the East Asian countries, Hungarian names are reversed when written in other countries.