{ "id": "eprxtqndt8", "slug": "the-fifth-seal", "title": "The Fifth Seal", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", "label": "War and historical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure", "label": "War action and adventure", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-through-1999", "label": "War action films released through 1999", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-through-1999" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-through-1999.yr-1963-1998", "label": "Released 1963 to 1998", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-through-1999.yr-1963-1998" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.eeu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", "label": "Eastern Europe · 1946 to 2000: War and historical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", "path": [ { "id": "geo.eeu", "label": "Eastern Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu" }, { "id": "geo.eeu.t1946", "label": "Eastern Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.eeu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.eeu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.eeu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.eeu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.eeu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.eeu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", "label": "War and historical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.eeu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Fifth Seal (Az ötödik pecsét) is Zoltán Fábri's 1976 Hungarian war drama, adapted from Ferenc Sánta's novel, in which five men in 1944 Budapest face a tyrant-or-slave moral dilemma under Arrow Cross rule; it won the 1977 Moscow Golden Prize.", "snippet": "The Fifth Seal (Az ötödik pecsét) is Zoltán Fábri's 1976 Hungarian war drama, adapted from Ferenc Sánta's novel, in which five men in 1944 Budapest face a tyrant-or-slave moral dilemma under Arrow Cross rule; it won the 1977 Moscow Golden Prize.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-through-1999.yr-1963-1998", "markdown": "# The Fifth Seal\n\n**The Fifth Seal** (Hungarian: *Az ötödik pecsét*) is a 1976 Hungarian war drama directed and written by Zoltán Fábri, adapted from Ferenc Sánta's 1963 novel of the same title. Set in Budapest in 1944 under the fascist Arrow Cross regime, it follows five men in a suburban pub whose theoretical debate about whether they would rather be reborn as a cruel tyrant or an honorable slave becomes a real test when they are arrested the next day.[1](https://nfi.hu/en/core-films-1/films-3/feature-films-1/the-fifth-seal-az-otodik-pecset.html) • [2](https://filmarchiv.hu/en/film-marathon/archives/2018/films/the-fifth-seal)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | *Az ötödik pecsét*; color feature film, Hungary, 1976[1](https://nfi.hu/en/core-films-1/films-3/feature-films-1/the-fifth-seal-az-otodik-pecset.html) |\n| Director and screenplay | Zoltán Fábri, based on the novel by Ferenc Sánta; cinematography by György Illés, music by György Vukán[1](https://nfi.hu/en/core-films-1/films-3/feature-films-1/the-fifth-seal-az-otodik-pecset.html) |\n| Setting | Budapest, 1944, during Arrow Cross terror and Soviet shelling of the city[1](https://nfi.hu/en/core-films-1/films-3/feature-films-1/the-fifth-seal-az-otodik-pecset.html) |\n| Principal cast | Lajos Őze (Gyuricza, the watchmaker), László Márkus (Király, the bookseller), Ferenc Bencze (Béla, the innkeeper), Sándor Horváth (Kovács, the carpenter), István Dégi (Keszei Károly), Zoltán Latinovits[3](https://port.hu/adatlap/film/tv/az-otodik-pecset-az-otodik-pecset/movie-9763) |\n| Awards | Golden Prize, 10th Moscow International Film Festival (1977); Golden Bear nomination, 27th Berlin International Film Festival; Hungary's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 49th Academy Awards[4](https://indiahabitat.org/hiff2026/details.php?editId=25) |\n| Hungarian premiere | 7 October 1976[5](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/az-otodik-pecset_8b387515cbf94e6397d4406a6a7805d4) |\n| Restoration | 4K restoration, grading supervised by cinematographer Lajos Koltai, HSC[6](https://nfi.hu/documents/show/836-a-filmarchivum-katalogusa-cannes-2018) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and moral dilemma\n\nThe film opens in a pub on the edge of Budapest in the autumn of 1944. Outside, the fascist [Arrow Cross Party](https://www.edgepedia.org/arrow-cross-party) terrorizes the population while the Soviet army shells the city. Inside, a group of friends argue about beef brisket and the injustices of fascism: Király (László Márkus), a snobbish bookseller; Kovács (Sándor Horváth), a religious carpenter; Béla (Ferenc Bencze), the pragmatic innkeeper; and the apparently cynical watchmaker Gyuricza (Lajos Őze).[1](https://nfi.hu/en/core-films-1/films-3/feature-films-1/the-fifth-seal-az-otodik-pecset.html) A wounded military veteran, Keszei Károly (István Dégi), limps into the bar and joins them.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jul/09/the-fifth-seal-review-a-spiky-political-cabaret-of-cruelty-and-fear)\n\nGyuricza poses the question that drives the film: if the men were to die and be resurrected, would they choose to return as a wealthy, cruel tyrant with no conscience, or as a virtuous slave who is tortured and loses everything?[4](https://indiahabitat.org/hiff2026/details.php?editId=25) Keszei insists he would choose slavery and is offended when the others mockingly disbelieve him.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jul/09/the-fifth-seal-review-a-spiky-political-cabaret-of-cruelty-and-fear) The next day, after the veteran reports remarks made at the table, the men find themselves in the torture chambers of the fascists, facing in reality exactly the issue they had discussed theoretically.[2](https://filmarchiv.hu/en/film-marathon/archives/2018/films/the-fifth-seal)\n\nThe National Film Institute describes the film's central question as whether ordinary people, not born rebels who try to survive oppression quietly, can preserve their moral standing when their lives are at stake; Fábri's answer is optimistic, in that even those who believed they would certainly choose life cannot be compromised.[1](https://nfi.hu/en/core-films-1/films-3/feature-films-1/the-fifth-seal-az-otodik-pecset.html) Each man's private circumstances raise the stakes: Gyuricza is hiding Jewish children in his apartment, Béla bribes Blackshirt police to leave his bar alone, and Király uses black-market cuts of meat to persuade his mistress.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jul/09/the-fifth-seal-review-a-spiky-political-cabaret-of-cruelty-and-fear)\n\n## Style\n\nFábri built the film almost entirely on dialogue within a narrow range of spaces, and gave it dynamism through a chronologically fractured structure, cutting in flashes of illustrations from a [Hieronymus Bosch](https://www.edgepedia.org/hieronymus-bosch) album that appear in the bookseller's imagination. The surreal images are comparable with the war conflagration and the moral doomsday of dictatorship, and the bombing shots at the end are similarly abstracted, as if Gyuricza's world is collapsing along with the apartments of Ferencváros.[1](https://nfi.hu/en/core-films-1/films-3/feature-films-1/the-fifth-seal-az-otodik-pecset.html) The Film Archive's catalog calls it one of the best Kammerspielfilms, or chamber dramas, in Hungarian cinema, with what a 1977 Los Angeles Times review by Linda Gross described as the form of a medieval morality play.[6](https://nfi.hu/documents/show/836-a-filmarchivum-katalogusa-cannes-2018)\n\nA widely cited scene pairs Őze's Gyuricza with Zoltán Latinovits as an Arrow Cross officer in civilian clothes, who explains that the true enemy is not the resistance but peaceful citizens who are not on the side of the authorities; these are the people who must be broken, not through torture but by compromising them until they are ashamed of themselves.[1](https://nfi.hu/en/core-films-1/films-3/feature-films-1/the-fifth-seal-az-otodik-pecset.html)\n\n## Production and reception history\n\nFábri wanted to adapt Sánta's novel in the year of its publication, 1963, but first filmed the more recently published *Twenty Hours* (*Húsz óra*, 1965). He returned to *The Fifth Seal* in the 1970s. On release it generated considerable controversy for its thesis-like nature and associative elements, and some critics argued that an exposition of the nature of fascism was outdated. That the film and novel could refer not only to fascism but, through their moral dilemmas, to any dictatorship was something that could not be openly voiced in Hungary at the time; in the 1970s it was easy to apply the parable to a communism that subjugated citizens through a network of informers.[1](https://nfi.hu/en/core-films-1/films-3/feature-films-1/the-fifth-seal-az-otodik-pecset.html)\n\nThe film premiered in Hungary on 7 October 1976.[5](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/az-otodik-pecset_8b387515cbf94e6397d4406a6a7805d4) It won the Golden Prize at the 10th Moscow International Film Festival, was entered into the 27th [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival), and was Hungary's submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 49th Academy Awards.[4](https://indiahabitat.org/hiff2026/details.php?editId=25) Despite a lukewarm reception at its premiere, the National Film Institute records that it has since taken its place alongside Fábri's other classics such as *[Merry-Go-Round](https://www.edgepedia.org/merry-go-round-1956-film)* (*Körhinta*), *The Tót Family* (1969), and *Professor Hannibal*.[1](https://nfi.hu/en/core-films-1/films-3/feature-films-1/the-fifth-seal-az-otodik-pecset.html)\n\n**Latinovits's last role.** The part of the Arrow Cross officer was the final film role of Zoltán Latinovits, who died by suicide at the age of 45, before the film's premiere.[1](https://nfi.hu/en/core-films-1/films-3/feature-films-1/the-fifth-seal-az-otodik-pecset.html)\n\n## Restoration and availability\n\nThe film was restored in 4K, with grading supervised by the cinematographer Lajos Koltai, and shown in that form at the Film Archive's Cannes 2018 catalog presentation.[6](https://nfi.hu/documents/show/836-a-filmarchivum-katalogusa-cannes-2018) The restored version screened at the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam as part of a Hungarian cinema season, introduced by the political philosopher Ivana Ivkovic.[8](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/the-fifth-seal/496996) It became available on the streaming service Klassiki from 11 July 2024, on which date Peter Bradshaw's review in *The Guardian* gave it four stars out of five and called it an arrestingly spiky political cabaret of cruelty and fear.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jul/09/the-fifth-seal-review-a-spiky-political-cabaret-of-cruelty-and-fear)\n\n## The title\n\nThe title refers to the fifth seal of the [Book of Revelation](https://www.edgepedia.org/book-of-revelation), whose opening reveals the prayers of the martyrs beseeching God's vengeance; the film's subject, in Peter Bradshaw's reading, is martyrdom of a tragicomically compromised kind.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jul/09/the-fifth-seal-review-a-spiky-political-cabaret-of-cruelty-and-fear)\n\n## Note on running time\n\nSources give different running times for the film: 107 minutes in the National Film Institute's records, 109 minutes in a festival listing, 111 minutes at the Eye Filmmuseum and Istanbul Film Festival, and 112 minutes on streaming listings.[1](https://nfi.hu/en/core-films-1/films-3/feature-films-1/the-fifth-seal-az-otodik-pecset.html) • [4](https://indiahabitat.org/hiff2026/details.php?editId=25) • [8](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/the-fifth-seal/496996) • [9](https://film.iksv.org/en/the-43rd-istanbul-film-festival-2024/the-fifth-seal) • [10](https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/the-fifth-seal) The National Film Institute's 107-minute figure for the original Budapest Studio production is the value attached to the film's archival record.[1](https://nfi.hu/en/core-films-1/films-3/feature-films-1/the-fifth-seal-az-otodik-pecset.html)\n\n## References\n\n1. [The Fifth Seal, National Film Institute Hungary](https://nfi.hu/en/core-films-1/films-3/feature-films-1/the-fifth-seal-az-otodik-pecset.html)\n2. [The Fifth Seal, National Film Institute Film Archive (2018 film marathon)](https://filmarchiv.hu/en/film-marathon/archives/2018/films/the-fifth-seal)\n3. [Az ötödik pecsét, Port.hu](https://port.hu/adatlap/film/tv/az-otodik-pecset-az-otodik-pecset/movie-9763)\n4. [Az ötödik pecsét / The Fifth Seal, India Habitat Film Festival 2026](https://indiahabitat.org/hiff2026/details.php?editId=25)\n5. [Az ötödik Pecsét, filmportal.de](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/az-otodik-pecset_8b387515cbf94e6397d4406a6a7805d4)\n6. [The Fifth Seal, Filmarchivum catalogue, Cannes 2018](https://nfi.hu/documents/show/836-a-filmarchivum-katalogusa-cannes-2018)\n7. [The Fifth Seal review – a spiky political cabaret of cruelty and fear, The Guardian, 9 July 2024](https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jul/09/the-fifth-seal-review-a-spiky-political-cabaret-of-cruelty-and-fear)\n8. [The Fifth Seal, Eye Filmmuseum](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/the-fifth-seal/496996)\n9. [The Fifth Seal, 43rd Istanbul Film Festival](https://film.iksv.org/en/the-43rd-istanbul-film-festival-2024/the-fifth-seal)\n10. [The Fifth Seal (1976), JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/the-fifth-seal)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › War action and adventure › War action films released through 1999 › Released 1963 to 1998*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-fifth-seal", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-fifth-seal.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Fifth Seal\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-fifth-seal. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Fifth Seal](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-fifth-seal)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-fifth-seal](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-fifth-seal). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Fifth Seal\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-fifth-seal. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Fifth Seal is Zoltán Fábri's 1976 Hungarian war drama, adapted from Ferenc Sánta's novel, in which five men in 1944 Budapest face a tyrant-or-slave moral dilemma under Arrow Cross rule; it won the 1977 Moscow Golden Prize." }