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Historical drama

The Round-Up

Szegénylegények

Year
1966
Length
90 minHungarian Film Archive presentation Version sources ↓

After a failed uprising, prisoners are isolated inside a detention camp where authorities use uncertainty and betrayal to identify remaining rebels.

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Country
Hungary
TenseBleak Best saved for later · For patient viewers Historical drama
A row of tiny figures and one separate figure stand inside a broad, pale walled enclosure.

Image: Monocurator · source · Original Monocurator artwork

What to expect

Jancsó replaces conventional suspense with long takes, open ground, repeated formations, and power exercised through movement. The landscape has no obvious hiding place, yet nobody can see the entire system operating around them.

How to ease in

Individual names matter less than changing positions. Watch who is separated, who receives partial information, and how each apparent choice has already been shaped by the authorities.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes detention, execution, coercive interrogation, forced nudity, suicide, political repression, betrayal, and sustained psychological violence.
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The plain looks open, but every step has been anticipated. I watch power create a maze without walls by controlling who knows what and when they are allowed to move.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Credits & versions

Version map

Hungarian Film Archive presentation 90 min 90 minutes is attached only to the named Hungarian Film Archive presentation. No unsupported cut, score, territory, frame rate, source element, or restoration detail is inferred. Source: National Film Institute Hungary — The Round-Up Runtime reference · Checked 2026-08-21

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