 Miklós Jancsó s Silence and Cry is set during a turbulent era of disquiet, fear, persecution and terror, which permeates every corner of post-WWI Hungarian society. In 1919, after just a few months of communist rule the Hungarian Republic of Councils falls victim to a nationalist counter-revolution. Admiral Horthy, leader of the nationalist far right movement, becomes the self-proclaimed regent of Hungary, and assumes power as the legal Head of State. Soldiers of the short-lived Hungarian Red Army are now on the run from relentless secret policemen and patrol units of the nationalist Royal Gendarme. If caught, ex-Red Army soldiers are executed without mercy or proper trial. István Cserzi, a former soldier of the Red Army has fled to the Great Hungarian Plains and has taken refuge on a farm, which is run by two sympathetic women. Due to the generosity of these women and a former childhood pal, who is now a commandant of the local Royal Gendarme outfit, István is safely hidden from the ever-prying eyes of the secret policemen, who relentlessly roam the countryside searching for ex-Red Army men and their sympathisers. However, upon discovering that the women are secretly poisoning the mother-in-law and the husband, the legal owners of the farm, István must make the most difficult decision of his life. As a personal war is waging within his own consciousness over morality and self-preservation, István must decide whether to remain silent about the women s devious secret and preserve his own life, or to report their heinous crime to the Royal Gendarme, which would also mean certain death for him.