Witness (disambiguation)

A witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about a crime or dramatic event.

Witness may also refer to:

Film and television

The Witness (1969 Hungarian film)

The Witness (Hungarian: A tanú, also known as Without A Trace), is a 1969 Hungarian satire film, directed by Péter Bacsó. The film was created in a tense political climate at a time when talking about the early 1950s and the 1956 Revolution was still taboo. Although it was financed and allowed to be made by the communist authorities, it was subsequently banned from release. As a result of its screening in foreign countries, the communist authorities eventually relented and allowed it to be released in Hungary. It was screened at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. A sequel was made in 1994 named "Megint tanú" (English: Witness Again).

Plot

The film features József Pelikán as a single father who previously participated in the WW2 communist movement of Hungary, but is now working at a dike. He meets an old friend from the underground communist movement, Zoltán Dániel, now a government official who fishes at the Danube, near the dike. Dániel falls in the river, and Pelikán rescues him and invites him to his home. The ÁVH receive a "serious anonymous report" stating Pelikán committed an illegal act of slaughtering a pig for food. Dániel tries to save him, but accidentally opens a hidden door to the basement, where all the pork had been hidden. Pelikán is taken to prison and later released, due to the "will of the higher command". Comrade Virág gives various assignments to Pelikán such as being the CEO of a swimming pool, an amusement park, and an orange-research facility; all to cause Pelikán to be the witness in a show trial against Zoltán Dániel. Before the trial they present Pelikán with testimony he must memorize, but Pelikán decides to tell the truth. He is thrown back in prison as a reprisal. While awaiting hanging, the political climate changes by reason of Stalin's death and he is released and meets Comrade Virág who has lost all his former power and influence.

The Witness (1992 film)

The Witness is a short film (19 minutes) directed by Chris Gerolmo, starring Gary Sinise and Elijah Wood.

Plot

Set in a Nazi concentration camp, The Witness shows a series of repeating set of psychological actions.

Gary Sinise plays a guard, whose daily routine is to corral Jewish prisoners through a tunnel and into the gas chamber. Each day, as he performs this task, the guard is watched by a Jewish little boy (Elijah Wood), whose piercing stare unsettles him. He tries to shake this child's steady glare, day after day, until one night he steals into the barracks, finds the child and smothers him. Instead of being free of the accusing stare, another child has replaced the one he killed.

The Witness was produced in 1992 in the United States and is in the German language.

See also

External links

The Witness at the Internet Movie Database