World Cinema Series: The Round Up

Free admission and free popcorn

The Round-Up (Hungarian: Szegénylegények, "Poor young men", i. e. outlaws) is a 1966 Hungarian film directed by Miklós Jancsó. Well received in its home country, it was Jancsó's first film to receive international acclaim. Today, many consider The Round-Up a classic of world cinema; it was selected to be screened in the Cannes Classics section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.

Following the quelling of Lajos Kossuth's 1848 revolution against Habsburg rule in Hungary, prison camps were set up for people suspected of being Kossuth's supporters. Around 20 years later, some members of highwayman Sándor Rózsa's guerrilla band, believed to be some of Kossuth's last supporters, are interned among the prisoners in a camp. The prison staff try to identify the rebels and find out if Sándor is among them using various means of mental and physical torture and trickery.

When one of the guerrillas, János Gajdar, is identified as a murderer by an old woman, he starts aiding his captors by acting as an informant. Gajdar is told that if he can show his captors a man who has killed more people than himself, he will be spared. Fearing for his life, he turns in several people his captors have been looking for by name but had been unable to identify among the prisoners.