A Hatarozat on AllMovie

Directors Gyula Gazdag and Judit Ember spent some time in 1972 filming the meetings of Communist Party officials in one region of Hungary, showing how they resolved a question about the misconduct of the chairman of a farm cooperative. Apparently the chairman had too much money flowing into his private coffers and had also hired a man who was later convicted and sentenced for running a brothel. When the Party officials bring these two accusations to the farm cooperative, the co-op defends the accused, saying he turned their losses into profits. These meetings continue in a push-and-pull type of back-handed democracy that leaves the Party officials with egg on their face but ultimately causes the resignation of the accused. Although these meetings are dramatically built up, the subject matter itself may appeal only to a limited audience. At the same time, the content of this documentary was so sensitive in Hungary that the film sat on the shelf for 12 years before it was released.