FLOWER OF THE TISZA

Apropos “construction of the other”: Silo is a drifter, white and male, who loves his freedom as much as he adores Maria, who is however already the faithful wife of Sandor the fisherman. Sandor for his part has fallen for the “gypsy” temptress Panna. In this Nazi-era Hungarian-German co-production, Géza von Bolváry juxtaposes a positively connoted romanticism towards nature with the wild and evil drives of the other – “gypsies”, whose film roles read “witch”, “whore”, “fish thief” and “jealous murderer”, as all the while, outside of the movie theatres, this minority was being persecuted by racists and murdered in the camps.