After the Russian Revolution in 1919, a civil war broke out, and many Hungarians joined the Soviet Red Army to fight against the White Army on the plains of the Volga River. One Hungarian Red Army soldier was killed in a river near the village, and the White Army marched through the village, seeming to have victory in their grasp. Dejected Red Army soldiers ran back to their camp, where there were also captured White Army soldiers. The Red Army stripped the prisoners of their clothes and humiliated them. But soon the camp was surrounded by the White Army, and this time it was the Red Army soldiers who were stripped of their uniforms and became targets for revenge and slaughter. The never-ending cycle of revenge and death continued as a few Red Army soldiers escaped the camp and fled from the pursuing White Army. This film is one of the masterpieces of the Hungarian New Wave, depicting the relentless and tragic cycle of violence and death in war.
