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A beautiful, melancholy film set in the nineteenth century but with obvious contemporary reverberations, Flowers of Reverie recently won the important Silver Bear (Special Jury Prize) at the Berlin Film Festival ’85. The story tells of a family divided by political antagonisms and allegiances in the years following the defeat of the 1848-49 Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence against imperial Austria. Ferenc Majlath, an ex-soldier who participated in the revolution, now allies himself with his exiled commanding officer to the dismay of his uncle, the family patriarch who is a supporter of the Emperor Franz Joseph. In a country littered with secret police eager to ferret out supporters of the failed rebellion, Ferenc is soon jailed; when he refuses to sign a confession and exhibits signs of extreme depression, he is committed to an insane asylum. Read More »