Electra, my love [DVD]

Hungarian director Miklos Jancso has created a stunning allegorical work about the perils of political deception and the power of vengeance. Having vowed revenge for the murder of her father fifteen years earlier, Electra awaits the return of her exiled brother, who she hopes will exact justice on her oppressors. Jansco relocates the classic Greek myth “Electra” (by Sophocles, written 410 B.C.E) to the arid plains of Hungary, where using a cast of thousands, he creates a symbolic work of extreme power and beauty. Using dance, song and movement Jansco conveys the themes of familial loyalty, tyranny and treachery in a series of long takes (about twelve in all) whereupon his camera roams the events unfurling, presenting an artful and ambitious work. The medieval tone (the film is replete with horses, knives, swords, flowing dresses and a lot of nudity) underscores the filmmaker’s desires to convey mythological poeticism, drawing on the folkloric nature of the source text. The film was also interpreted as an analogy for the state of politics in Hungary at the time, when political leaders were feeding the people a complex web of political lies and deceptions, enslaving them with empty promises of a socialist state. Cast includes Mari Torocsik, Jozsef Madaras, Gyorgy Cserhalmi and Lajos Balazsovits.