Beyond the Forest. Hungarian music in Transylvania - ACE224.3

Halmos and others playing in the Dance House. Dancers. News-film of soldiers marching. Maneszes playing and singing, accompanied by Halmos and Sebestyén. They discuss the emotional impact of the song. Sebestyén believes that the music was, and can still be, used as an expression of collective and personal pain and suffering. Bertalan Andrásfalvy, Hungarian Minister of Culture and Education, echoes her sentiments and suggests that such musical traditions are maintained "by oppressed minority groups". Characteristic Gypsy trio (fiddler Sándor Fodor "Netti" and others) playing for traditional man’s solo dance. Caption: "Kalotaszeg." A "clean room" where a family’s embroidery and other heirlooms are kept. Women embroidering while sitting by village roadside. Andrásfalvy on the survival of local customs; VO over woman showing her collection of embroidered skirts. Other solo dancers. Early film of two men performing similar dance. Fodor playing. Music continues over rural scenes. Actuality film of village bulldozed on the orders of Ceaucescu. Blocks of flats. Tekla Tőtszegi, Teacher, talking about the village of Mera and the adverse social consequences of Ceaucescu’s policies even in villages that weren’t destroyed. VO women embroidering.