An excerpt from the booklet essay by John Cunningham.

Some films acquire a reputation long after their release particularly if, as was the case with People of the Mountains (Emberek a havason), the film is released in the middle of a world war. It was only in Hungary and Italy that the qualities of People of the Mountains were noted and in Hungary, it has remained a firm favourite. This was Hungarian director, István Szőts’ first feature film and although he was to have a long career in filmmaking he only directed one other feature, Song from the Cornfields (Ének a búzamezökről) in 1948 which had an even more chequered career than its predecessor. Few films are entirely ‘innocent’ of their time and place and People of the Mountains, mainly shot on location in the mountains of Transylvania (Erdély in Hungarian), is no exception. Released at a time when Hungary had reclaimed much of Transylvania from Romania, this beautiful and moving film was caught up in the carnage of the Second World War as Hungary had earlier, in June 1941, joined the Nazis in their invasion of the Soviet Union. The film must also be seen within the framework of the complex historical tensions between Hungary and Romania, with their territorial claims and counter-claims to Transylvania . Without the Second Vienna Accords – an agreement between Hungary and Romania brokered and supervised by Nazi Germany – Transylvania would never have been occupied by Hungarian troops (in 1940) and it is doubtful if this film would have been made.

Based on a collection of short stories, 'Kopjafák', by the Hungarian novelist József Nyirő, who like Szőts was also born in Transylvania. Nyirő worked with the director on the adaptation process and despite a limited budget the project developed into a feature film. Much of the film was shot on location in the Transylvanian mountains and was given the title People of the Mountains.
The filmmakers worked to a tight budget and much of the shooting took place in the winter of 1941-2. Most of the mountain scenes were shot in and around Gyilkostó (Lacu Rosu in Romanian), 180km east of Kolosvár (now Cluj-Napoca). To keep costs down the crew was cut to the minimum, Ferenc Fekete was cinematographer – one of a number of superb Hungarian cinematographers, a tradition which is maintained to this day and the two main leads were given to relative unknowns, Janos Görbe and Alice Szellay. The former had only limited film experience having appeared in Landslide (Földindulás) directed by Arzén Csepéry in 1940 while Szellay was primarily a stage actress. This was probably advantageous as filming in the mountains was difficult and cast and crew suffered in the cold. Szőts himself noted ‘Which stars would have willingly made such sacrifices?’.

People of the Mountains did not have its premiere in Hungary. Instead, it was first shown at the 1942 Venice Film Festival (30 August – 5 September), the last to be held during the war. It was a strange affair; usually Venice attracted films from around the world but three years into the war, the entries were somewhat lacklustre and confined to Italian and German films and those of their allies or ‘fellow travellers’. In official Festival history it is now considered ‘void’. Unsurprisingly, most of the films shown were fascist propaganda of one sort or another, such as Veit Harlan’s Frederick the Great (Best Foreign Film) or Augusto Genini’s Bengasi (Best Italian Film). In such dismal company People of the Mountains could not have failed to make an impact and the group around the Italian journal Cinema, people like Giuseppe de Santis, Alberto Lattuada, Carlo Lizzani and Francesco Pasinetti, many of whom became associated with Italian Neorealism, were impressed by the Hungarian entry. Articles praising People of the Mountains appeared in Cinema, one probably written by Carlo Lizzani and another signed by Pasinetti while the film critic for Il Messagero wrote, ‘This film is beautiful, unique and inimitable’.

Elsewhere the film had a mixed reception: Goebbels, always on the lookout for suitable, pro-fasicist films, hated it despite the fact that Nyirő, on whose story the film was based, was the Hungarian representative for the European Writers League (an organisation established by Goebbels); in Hungary the film tended to be praised or damned depending on the ideological leanings of the reviewer. Right wing critics liked the film’s religiosity, its portrayal of Christian values (conveniently ignoring the pagan elements in the film) as opposed to ‘cosmopolitanism’ (read ‘Jewishness’). They were probably not that keen on the film’s critique of capitalism (however muted) and its portrayal of Dickensian labour conditions in the newly liberated Hungarian heartland. The left were equivocal about the film but their voice, by this time, was weak. The left-leaning Peoples’ Voice (Népszava) criticised the film’s ‘fake popular character’ and voices were raised about its ‘romantic anti-capitalism’.

Fortunately, People of the Mountains survived the war and the many ups and downs of post-war Hungarian society. It became a favourite for Hungarian audiences possibly motivated by a desire to see ‘what might have been’, that is – a Hungarian Transylvania. Marta Mészáros, in an act of ‘homage’, included a clip from People of the Mountains in her ‘Diary’ film, Diary for my Children (Napló gyermekeimnek, 1984) and a panel of judges voted it the fourth best Hungarian film ever in 2000.

John Cunningham's complete essay, from which this excerpt is taken, appears in the booklet which accompanies the DVD release.