Tomorrow Pheasant is a Hungarian film that serves up a little parable about benevolent dictatorships.
The setting is a quiet river side during a hot summer. A married couple in their early thirties arrive and are happy to find the place nearly empty except for an aging professor and some fishermen. Then, a large group of twentysomethings show up. The older fishermen (in their forties and fifties) take an interest in the young people. One shortish, middle-aged man makes himself the unofficial leader of all of the campers.
For a while, everyone is happy, but little problems slowly (too slowly) begin to pop up. The leader is a bit too fond of giving speeches and a bit too proud of his unearned position. The professor and the couple in their thirties, who were first at the spot, find themselves being gently coerced into participating in the leader's organized events. Then, there is the matter of personal property. While the couple is technically under no obligation to lend their things, an expectation hangs in the air.
Tomorrow Pheasant (a phrase the "leader" states) takes a low-key approach. As a result, the film can feel a bit slight, in spite of some good images of the river and the natural world around it (director Sandor Sara was a noted cinematographer).
The film would probably have meant more in the 1970s, behind the iron curtain, where audiences would have been more familiar with individuals serving as benevolent leaders, whether or not these leaders were wanted.
