The movie is based on true story and plays in Hungary, 1882. The 14- year-old maid Eszter Solymosi disappeared during a Jewish feast. Some local Jews are accused with the ritual murder of her.
Months later a corpse of a young girl appears in the nearly river, which is found and buried also by raftsmen. The film tells us mainly the story of them: the investigators say that it's not the body of Eszter, and they helped for the Jewish community (for money) to confirm their innocence with the body of an other woman (who smothered and wasn't killed). In addition the defense tries to prove that the raftsmen (and people who witnessed against the Jews) were terrified and even beaten by the investigation department.
The portrayal is not too complex, just as we excepted. This film prefers the side of the defense and the Jews - we can see them as innocent, unhurting people bullied by the envious, anti-Semite investigators. The reason of this is that the movie was significant influenced by the novel of Károly Eötvös (defense attorney), in which he states a lot of lies (inverstigator Bary disproves those later in his own book) and half-truths about Eszter's strange disappearing and the investigation.
However, we could be almost sure that the corpse in the river didn't belong to Eszter. For example, her mother (and other relatives and local Hungarian people who knew the girl) did not identify the body as Eszter's. The medical examiner said that at the time of the finding of the body it had been in the water since 3-4 days, and the age of her had been around 20. We know these facts unfortunately not from this movie, but from the book Bary. Only the disagreement of the mother appears - with a negative tone.
What else could be said? It was made by a book full with sophistications, so it only could be enjoyed by those who don't know the whole story so much or believe in everything which Eötvös claims.
Months later a corpse of a young girl appears in the nearly river, which is found and buried also by raftsmen. The film tells us mainly the story of them: the investigators say that it's not the body of Eszter, and they helped for the Jewish community (for money) to confirm their innocence with the body of an other woman (who smothered and wasn't killed). In addition the defense tries to prove that the raftsmen (and people who witnessed against the Jews) were terrified and even beaten by the investigation department.
The portrayal is not too complex, just as we excepted. This film prefers the side of the defense and the Jews - we can see them as innocent, unhurting people bullied by the envious, anti-Semite investigators. The reason of this is that the movie was significant influenced by the novel of Károly Eötvös (defense attorney), in which he states a lot of lies (inverstigator Bary disproves those later in his own book) and half-truths about Eszter's strange disappearing and the investigation.
However, we could be almost sure that the corpse in the river didn't belong to Eszter. For example, her mother (and other relatives and local Hungarian people who knew the girl) did not identify the body as Eszter's. The medical examiner said that at the time of the finding of the body it had been in the water since 3-4 days, and the age of her had been around 20. We know these facts unfortunately not from this movie, but from the book Bary. Only the disagreement of the mother appears - with a negative tone.
What else could be said? It was made by a book full with sophistications, so it only could be enjoyed by those who don't know the whole story so much or believe in everything which Eötvös claims.