hufilmtv1-5, Exercise 2: The history of A tanu

Model answer (check the details):

Documented: the film, directed by Peter Bacso, is a comedy about a humble dyke-keeper, Jozsef Pelikan, drawn into absurd schemes by officials in the Stalinist early 1950s. It was made in 1969 and shown publicly in 1979, and it became a cult film whose lines passed into everyday speech.

Disputed or uncertain: why the film waited ten years, who decided, and whether it should be called "banned", "shelved" or "delayed". Accounts differ on how far the target (the Rakosi era) was safe and how far the tone was seen as dangerous in 1969.

A careful summary: "Made in 1969 and shown with a long delay in 1979, A tanu satirised the Stalinist 1950s and later became a cult film; the reasons for the delay are described differently in different sources."