MIRE TANÍT, AKI TANÍT? TANÁRKARAKTEREK A MAGYAR HANGOSFILM ELSŐ ÉVTIZEDEIBEN
IS THE TEACHING PROFESSION IN CRISIS? THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE TEACHER IN HUNGARIAN FILM REPRESENTATIONS

Author(s): Gábor Beretvás
Subject(s): Film / Cinema / Cinematography
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: film history; Hungarian film; cultural policy; antisemitism; teacher; Rákosi era; schematism;
Summary/Abstract: This article offers a survey of around twenty-five years of the Hungarian film culture, beginning with the emergence of sound cinema, which dates back to 1931. I examine changes in the representation of the teacher’s figure in consecutive political systems. Depending on the period in focus, the teacher’s character is either foregrounded and portrayed as a role model, an agency of propaganda, or is pushed into the background giving room to the politically more relevant figure of the party secretary who serves educationalist functions.The cinematic teacher, school, and students make up a community modelling society in the works I focus on, often the prototype of an imaginary and utopian society. In some films, the teacher is portrayed as the everyday hero working towards the achievement of utopian goals, while in others the educator is expected to convey the political élite’s ideological teachings towards students and, indirectly, towards the audience. With the weakening of the authoritarian political system, teacher heroes also lose attitudes forced on them by politics.

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