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| A still from "The Fifth Seal" (1976) [Images may be subject to copyright] |
Cinema has often used history as a vehicle for philosophical inquiry. In Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, the historical reality of the Black Death becomes a framework for examining existential doubt and humanity's search for meaning. Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon similarly intertwines history and philosophy, exploring moral relativism and the elusive nature of truth. In both cases, historical circumstances shape the characters' predicaments while simultaneously opening a space for larger questions about human existence.
Zoltan Fabri's The Fifth Seal belongs firmly within this tradition. Set in wartime Budapest during the final years of World War II, the film concerns itself with individuals whose lives are unlikely to occupy more than a footnote in any historical record. Yet through their experiences, Fabri transforms ordinary people into vessels for profound ethical inquiry. The film's historical setting (WWII) provides the pressure under which questions of conscience, responsibility, and survival acquire an urgent significance. By focusing on the intimate experiences of a handful of middle-aged men, Fabri creates a micro-historical perspective through which broader truths about oppression and human behavior can be examined.
Hungarian cinema has frequently approached history in distinctive ways. The country's long experience of political turmoil, occupation, and resistance has encouraged filmmakers to engage with the past as something more than a chronological record of events. Miklos Jancso's films employ formal experimentation and allegory to reveal recurring patterns of violence and domination. Istvan Szabo's historical dramas often balance personal narratives against sweeping political transformations. Bela Tarr's cinema, while rarely addressing specific historical events, evokes the lingering effects of historical forces through atmosphere and social decay.
Fabri occupies a different position within this lineage. He is less overtly experimental than Jancso and less stylistically radical than Tarr. His concerns are rooted in human behavior, particularly the moral choices individuals make when confronted by extraordinary circumstances. His filmmaking style appears restrained on the surface, yet beneath that austerity lies remarkable control and precision. In The Fifth Seal, this approach allows philosophical questions to emerge organically from the drama rather than being imposed upon it.
The film begins with four middle-aged men gathered in a nearly empty bar during a curfewed night in Budapest. A watchmaker, a bookseller, a barkeep, and a carpenter pass the evening discussing everyday matters while the sounds of war echo outside. Soldiers march through the streets, air raids remain a constant threat, and representatives of the fascist regime occasionally intrude upon their conversations. An artistic photographer who has lost his leg in the war eventually joins the group, and their casual discussions gradually turn toward questions of ideology, morality, and human nature.
The conversation reaches its turning point when the seemingly cynical watchmaker proposes a disturbing hypothetical scenario. If given the choice after death, would they prefer to be reborn as a tyrant or as a slave? In such a scenario of rebirth, the slave suffers endless humiliation and pain while retaining a clear conscience. The tyrant commits atrocities without remorse, convinced of his own righteousness. What initially appears to be a simple moral dilemma quickly reveals unexpected complications. As each man struggles to formulate an answer, the boundaries between moral purity and practical existence become increasingly difficult to define.
Fabri wisely refuses to treat the discussion as a purely intellectual exercise. After the men leave the bar, the question continues to haunt them. The film follows each character into his private life, revealing anxieties, desires, and contradictions that complicate any straightforward ethical judgment. The carpenter is disturbed by his inability to choose the slave without hesitation. The barkeep worries about economic survival amid social collapse. The bookseller seeks comfort in a lover's embrace. The watchmaker secretly shelters Jewish children from persecution.
The photographer appears to possess the clearest answer. Having lost a leg during the war, he identifies strongly with the suffering slave and takes pride in what he perceives as his moral integrity. But the watchmaker who posed the question casually dismisses the stand. And, in fact, Fabri goes on to gradually expose the fragility of choosing a role with certainty. Moreover, the photographer's self-image becomes increasingly important as the film develops, especially in relation to its title.
The title The Fifth Seal refers to the Book of Revelation, in which the opening of the fifth seal reveals the souls of martyrs crying out for divine justice. The photographer implicitly sees himself within this tradition of suffering and sacrifice. His understanding of himself rests upon the belief that hardship has granted him moral authority. As the narrative progresses, however, the film subjects that belief to intense scrutiny.
The following evening, the four men are arrested by fascist authorities (possibly informed by the photographer) and taken to police headquarters. They are beaten without explanation and eventually brought before a superior officer who views terror as a tool of social control. According to him, fear can destroy not only resistance but also an individual's sense of self-respect. To demonstrate his theory, he presents the prisoners with a shocking test.
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| The Fascist officer played by Zoltán Latinovits [Images may be subject to copyright] |
A resistance fighter, brutally tortured and barely conscious, hangs suspended in a large hall. The men are told they may return home if they strike him twice. The proposition transforms the previous night's abstract conversation into lived reality. Moral philosophy suddenly acquires tangible consequences. Survival, dignity, conscience, and responsibility become inseparable.
What makes this sequence so devastating is the way it dismantles easy assumptions about courage and morality. The men who seemed self-interested prove capable of extraordinary sacrifice. Their refusal does not emerge from heroic certainty or moral superiority. It is accompanied by fear, hesitation, and despair. The carpenter, whose conscience seemed strongest earlier, and seemed gleeful to be a 'tyrant,' finds himself overwhelmed by the situation.
Only the watchmaker acts. His decision ensures his survival, yet Fabri refuses to present the act in simplistic terms. The watchmaker has previously risked his life protecting Jewish children. He possesses a moral seriousness absent in many of the film's other characters. His choice, therefore, complicates any attempt to categorize him as either coward or hero.
This complexity ultimately forms the heart of The Fifth Seal. The fascist officer believes that human beings can be reduced to predictable categories and tested according to rigid moral formulas. Fabri rejects such certainty. The film suggests that individuals exceed the ethical frameworks imposed upon them. Human beings contain contradictions, competing loyalties, fears, and responsibilities that resist neat classification.
The watchmaker's survival raises unsettling questions. Did his commitment to protecting others enable him to make a choice that others could not? Does preserving a larger moral purpose justify a morally compromised action? Fabri offers no definitive answers. Instead, he exposes the inadequacy of abstract ethical systems when confronted with the messy realities of lived experience.
More than four decades after its release, The Fifth Seal remains a remarkable historical drama because it transforms its audience into participants. The watchmaker's question lingers long after the film ends, refusing easy resolution. Faced with the same circumstances, what would any of us choose? Fabri's achievement lies in recognizing that the answer may reveal less about morality itself than about the impossibility of reducing human beings to any single moral ideal.
My Video Essay on Fifth Seal (1976):
The Fifth Seal (1976) Links: IMDb, Letterboxd
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