Wrong-Doers
In the extensive restoration program of Hungarian film heritage led by the National Film Institute of Hungary (NFI), the films of these two filmmakers stand out for their uniqueness. After a few formidable offerings inspired by cinéma vérité, the former turned to a type of cinema influenced by American westerns, to the point of becoming the leader of a subgenre: the Goulash Western. The latter made a handful of magnificent experimental films and a masterpiece: Sinbad.
Thanks to its spectacular action scenes and energetic plotting, Wrong-Doers manages to match the best Westerns, even though this film bears only distant kinship to the classical American genre, instead representing a characteristic Eastern European adaptation, the ‘Eastern’. György Szomjas shot this enormously popular film in the wake of The Wind Is Whistling Under Their Feet. Again, the setting is 19th century Hungary and the world of outlaws, and once again Đoko Rosić plays one of the lead roles. János Derzsi, György Dörner and Mari Kiss also give intensely memorable performances. (National Film Institute Hungary)
György Szomjas
György Szomjas was a Hungarian film director and screenwriter. He directed more than 20 films from 1965 to 2021. His 1983 film Light Physical Injuries was entered into the Berlin International Film Festival. He is the father of the Hungarian Ostern, the Goulash Western. In the 1970s, he directed two osterns about Hungarian rascals, The Wind Blows Under Your Feet (1976), and Wrong-Doers (1979).
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