What can you complain about the film Semmelweisthe latest creation from Hungarian director Koltai Lajos, a director who first rose to prominence when he teamed up as a cinematographer with the much better-known István Szabo?

Perhaps the length of some scenes, a certain Manichaeism regarding the relationship between doctors of Hungarian origin and Austrians who do their work in a large Viennese clinic where the action is concentrated, an excess of tears in the acting of the actor Vechej Miklós. for the role of a young doctor who, in order to fulfill his mission, he messes with everyone. Perhaps even in some places a certain fall into melodramatics and in some places an overly sought after and intrusive shaking of the viewer’s sensuality. In any case, if he does not have a heart of stone, he cannot help but vibrate in the face of trials, persecutions, abuses of all kinds, which the main character of the film, Ignaz Semmelweis, is subjected to.

The sequence of apologies by Professor Klein (Galfi Laszlo) or the suffering and devotion beyond the obvious betrayals of Miss Hoffmann (Nagy Katica) are also touching. The humble nurse redeems her mistake by boldly proving, also ready to face everyone, that the Hungarian doctor’s apparent failure was due to Kollar’s criminal actions. From the very beginning, the Austrian doctor was disliked because of the way he is played by Kovacs Tamas. Even more unlike the famous Uriah Heep from the works of Dickens.

So we are in Imperial Vienna in 1847. In one of the excellent clinics of the city. A city whose daily life, both with balls and social, even ethnic complexities and antagonisms, whose grandeur is matched and balanced by the unenviable lifestyle of the majority of the population is well reconstructed by the director and the set artists (Dioseghi Balint). , Nagy Henriett ), costume designer (Szakács Györgyi) and cinematographer Nagy András. In one of the largest clinics in the city, a university-level facility run by Professor Klein (with nuanced, performance-measuring work done by Gaalfi Laszlo), there is an alarming increase in birth mortality. Professor Klein blames the pandemic, which, strangely, manifests itself only within the walls of the respective clinic. The majority of doctors accept the explanation, either out of servitude, or out of convenience, or out of a desire to preserve a good reputation at any cost, which guarantees a subsidy from the government. Except for young Dr. Semmelweis. Handsome in face, like a Christian, albeit with an expensive smile (I learned that his translator Vechey Miklos once played Romeo in the theater), but relentless, strict, like a Mitokan with his colleagues, nurses, students, with contempt for hierarchies and rules. Semmelweis wants to find out the true cause of the deaths, he will have their intuition, and he will be helped by sister Emma Hoffman (Nagy Katika), who will feel the generosity of the doctor and the subtlety of the soul. His fight for the truth will be fierce, it will acquire an ethnic connotation (in the clinic there is already a pitched battle between Austrian doctors and Hungarians), the victory will ultimately be paid dearly. In fact, some time before Pasteur, a young Hungarian doctor guessed the existence of viruses and bacteria. –

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