Time Stands Still

The movie opens at the time of the Hungarian uprising of 1956, when a family is separated forever. The husband has a clandestine escape route prepared, via the Red Cross to Vienna, but his wife determines to stay in Budapest, and she keeps the two kids.

The high school boys, Dini and the elder Gabor are living with the traumas of the past and the pangs felt by their hard-working single mom. A comrade of the boys’ father gets out of prison and moves in with their mom. He warns Dini not to make waves: in class he should not raise his hand and never contribute unless asked, assuming all those asking questions are only trying to pump him for information because they are being pumped. When they grow up, turn his revolutionary fervor into a kind of generalized adolescent admiration for "America," by which they seem to mean rock 'n' roll.

The movie follows the mother and her two sons for roughly a decade. Slightly better times come to Hungary. Enormous emphasis is placed on success: on getting the right grades and making the right connections (and avoiding dangerous connections) so you can win one of the coveted slots in a medical or legal school. Because of their father's reputation, the two sons are discriminated against.

“This is the only Hungarian film I am passionate about, because I think it is far the best ever. Its making was a courageous act of great artists and actors.” -Daniel Antal

“...Megal az İdö is a masterpiece of cinema history by moving the postmodern discourse out of the story and doing something that has never been done before through lighting and color. “ -KEREM DUYMUŞ