Dear Elza! or (Drága Elza! in Hungarian) is the story of a Hungarian soldier fighting on the Eastern Front who is captured by the Russians and sent to a penal battalion.
Like the Russian film, White Tiger, it attempts to provide a dramatic, symbolic message about military duty & survival with slightly supernatural overtones and, like the former, is let down by that very mechanic.
Whilst it's portrayal of Lombos Mihály's time within the Russian penal battalion seems authentic enough, the use of the old Jewish- Hungarian deserter as Lombos' conscience (or the Devil depending on your interpretation of the final scenes) is clumsy.
The penultimate scene where Mihály finally decides to escape climaxes with a fight between him and the NKVD officer in charge of his unit, he is saved by the deserter attacking the officer, allowing Mihály to go through the final moments of the scene. Since we later find that the deserter didn't, in fact, exist in the first instance, one is forced to ask how this imaginary figure saved our hero in the first instance.
The film reminds one of the Sixth Sense, where there will be those who would stridently demand that they knew the deserter was a figment in the first instance and, with the benefit of hindsight, go to great lengths to point out the 'obvious' clues within the movie.
Other plot holes such as Mihály's explanation that his entries into his journal were when he decided to kill his wife back in Hungary aren't explained or whether or not he made it back to Hungary posing as a Russian soldier aren't touched upon, leaving one feeling rather bewildered.
Had they stuck to a regular story of this soldier's capture and subsequent war within the penal battalion without the moralistic overtones, I believe the film would have had a greater appeal.
Like the Russian film, White Tiger, it attempts to provide a dramatic, symbolic message about military duty & survival with slightly supernatural overtones and, like the former, is let down by that very mechanic.
Whilst it's portrayal of Lombos Mihály's time within the Russian penal battalion seems authentic enough, the use of the old Jewish- Hungarian deserter as Lombos' conscience (or the Devil depending on your interpretation of the final scenes) is clumsy.
The penultimate scene where Mihály finally decides to escape climaxes with a fight between him and the NKVD officer in charge of his unit, he is saved by the deserter attacking the officer, allowing Mihály to go through the final moments of the scene. Since we later find that the deserter didn't, in fact, exist in the first instance, one is forced to ask how this imaginary figure saved our hero in the first instance.
The film reminds one of the Sixth Sense, where there will be those who would stridently demand that they knew the deserter was a figment in the first instance and, with the benefit of hindsight, go to great lengths to point out the 'obvious' clues within the movie.
Other plot holes such as Mihály's explanation that his entries into his journal were when he decided to kill his wife back in Hungary aren't explained or whether or not he made it back to Hungary posing as a Russian soldier aren't touched upon, leaving one feeling rather bewildered.
Had they stuck to a regular story of this soldier's capture and subsequent war within the penal battalion without the moralistic overtones, I believe the film would have had a greater appeal.