FAQ

The film is not a 100% faithful adaptation of Sándor Petöfi's original János vitéz (John the Valiant) poem, as director Marcell Jankovics implemented some of his own ideas onto the story and presentation.

Smaller differences are the absence of minor characters. In the poem, the Hungarian hussars are saved from the dog-headed Tartars by the Saracen king who happens to be wandering by, as he is on friendly terms with them. In the film, the hussars escape through their own ingenuity, by distracting the Tartars with bones.

The Sultan has a son in the poem, whose life János spares after he tries to flee with the kidnapped French princess because he doesn't think he's worth killing. In the film, it's the Sultan who attempts to run away like a coward, whereas in the poem, he went down fighting. János spares no one in the film.

János also comes across a farmer whose carriage is stuck in mud and an old fisherman, both of whom inform him about where he's heading. They're also left out of the movie.

The biggest difference comes in the film's second half, after János discovers that Iluska has died. In the poem, he takes a rose from her grave and begins his somewhat aimless wanderings that take years. At first he's besieged by sorrow that gradually fades. In the film, he takes a couple of the roses that somehow give him mystical powers which lift his spirits immediately. His journey is more focused, as he starts following the trail of dead spirits to eventually find the "other world" where he hopes to meet Iluska again. In the poem, there is no trail of ghosts -- the only spirits he comes across are malevolent and try to kill him for trespassing into their territory at the end of the story. In the movie, Iluska's witch stepmother sends specters after him right at the start of his journey.

When he reaches the Land of the Giants in the poem, he kills a sentry before entering the giants' castle to defeat their king. In the movie, there is no castle, nor a sentry. The giants are living mountains, hills, clouds and tornadoes, and János only kills their king.

The Country of Darkness is way different from its depiction in the poem, where it's a mysterious darkened area where witches live. János summons the giants who now serve him to kill the witches attacking him, thereby bringing light back to the realm. One giant grabs Iluska's stepmother and throws her all the way back to her village, dead. He then wanders further and it's at this point that the restless ghosts attack him. He eventually reaches the Operencian Sea (or "the Sea Beyond the Seven Seas").

In the movie, he sees the spirits head down a hole where the Devil himself gathers them in his cauldron. Witches and demons dance around until they begin attacking János. János uses the magic power of his roses to turn into a mighty fighter and kill the demons and witches by himself. Defeating the Devil, he realizes that Iluska's spirit is not among the ghosts freed from the Devil's cauldron. John kills Iluska's stepmother by throwing a club at her, but in the ensuing eruption of light, he passes out and awakens on the shore of the Operencian Sea.

Crossing the sea and reaching Fairyland, he first kills three guardian bears, then three lions in the poem, none of which appear in the movie. He then battles a dragon-like serpent, jumping into its mouth and stabbing its heart with his sword. The dragon disappears and the door leading to Fairyland appears. In the movie, the dragon destroys his sword, so János kills it by crushing its heart, then he suddenly appears inside Fairyland.

In the poem, he does not find Iluska, and throws the rose into a pond, wanting to drown himself too. But the magical water brings Iluska back to life from the rose. The fairies around them declare them the King and Queen of Fairyland. In the movie, Iluska is already alive when János gets there, having become the Queen of Fairyland off-screen. János is given an apple, becoming a fairy himself. No longer humans, they continue their lives as mystical beings.

The original author of the János vitéz poem Sándor Petöfi and film director Marcell Jankovics were both very nationalistic, passionate Hungarians. Beginning from the 1200s, the Tartars (actually Mongols) repeatedly invaded Hungary, pillaging, raping and slaughtering Hungarians en masse. Historical estimates claim somewhere between a third and half of all Hungarians were killed during these invasions.

Following the 1500s, after decades of hard-fought wars, the Turkish have also invaded and occupied the country for nearly a century and a half, which Hungarians still consider a painful part of history to this day. The deep animosity against Turkish invaders was even immortalized in Hungary's National Anthem, as well as famous literary works like the novel Crescent Moon (Egri Csillagok) and the poem John the Valiant (János Vitéz), on which this film was based. Jankovics has been especially outspoken of his belief that Islamism has no place in Europe, though this has not stopped him from respecting their own cultural heritage and even contributing to the Hungarian release of Turkish literature with his illustrations. In his final years, he has been a critic of EU migration laws and argued in favor of cultural separation.

Petöfi lived under the Habsburg Empire's oppression and eventually lost his life in the failed war for freedom of 1848-49. His poem was deliberately written to "boost the spirit" of his Hungarian readers, as the nation had harbored centuries of resentment against their former enemies such as the Mongols and Turks. The poem is highly nationalistic but also a complete work of fiction, with chivalrous Hungarian hussars defending France from Turkish invaders, something that had no basis in real history. On their way from Hungary to France, the hussars also come across evil, half-human, half-dog Mongols, but a Saracen king comes to their rescue. By showing Hungary's army holding its own and even beating his nation's former enemies, Petöfi's poem gave a sort of catharsis to its readers, struggling under Habsburg rule and its censorship.

In a similar vein, Jankovics lived under strict communist oppression and the regime had targeted his family personally. The movie accentuates the negative portrayal of the Turks and Mongols compared to the original poem and shows the Hungarian hussars in an even more positive light. Notably, the Saracen king doesn't appear in the film, the Hungarians outwit the dog-men Mongols by themselves. Similar to the poem, the film was also partially meant to serve as a nationalistic "boost" to its Hungarian audience who had still felt the pain of centuries of defeat, mistreatment and cultural destruction. By the time of the film's creation, Hungary has been weakened and beaten not only by the Habsburg monarchy but also the victors of both World Wars, and was under Soviet oppression. This might account for why the film is even more nationalistic than the poem and why it shows the Turks and Mongols in such an extremely negative light.

Both Petöfi and Jankovics had felt that Hungarians needed to see their nation win against their age-old adversaries, even if only in fiction. Censorship forbade them from criticizing their current oppressors, so the enemies of the past had to play these villainous roles against the film's and poem's fictional Hungarian hussar army. Even in the 21st century, there is still much resentment among Hungarians toward other nations and cultures who have slighted them, after their country has been on the losing end of many conflicts and got constantly invaded and occupied by various outside forces ever since the 800s. Many Hungarians still see the exaggerated ("racist") portrayals seen in the film as justified and traditional elements of their literature and art.