DVD Pick: Sunshine

Directed and coscripted by Istvan Szabo (Mephisto, Colonel Redl), the powerful English-language drama Sunshine chronicles the lives of a family of Hungarian Jews from the late 19th century to well into the second half of the 20th. The family saga is set against the backdrop of the turbulent events that occurred in Hungary when the country became caught up in World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. I found the first 84 minutes of this three-hour epic to be generally uninvolving, but then the film grabbed hold of me and gradually built to an emotional ending that left me deeply moved.

The story is narrated by Ivan Sonnenschein (Ralph Fiennes) in the late 1990s when he is about 70 years old. The first hour of the film is mainly about Ivan’s grandfather Ignatz (also played by Fiennes), while the second hour focuses on Ivan’s father Adam (again played by Fiennes). During the movie’s third hour, Ivan recounts the story of his own life. Ivan also tells us about the women in the lives of these men, the most interesting of which is his spirited grandmother Valerie (played as an older woman by Rosemary Harris and as a young woman by Harris’ daughter, Jennifer Ehle).

The narrator Ivan relates that his great-grandfather Emmanuel Sonnenschein (David de Keyser) left his village at age 12 with little more than the family recipe for an herbal tonic called Taste of Sunshine. Landing in Budapest, Emmanuel prospered by making and selling the tonic, married, fathered two sons, and raised his brother’s daughter Valerie (Ehle) as if she were his own.

One of Emmanuel’s sons, Ignatz (Fiennes), studies law in Vienna, and when he completes his studies and returns home, the narrator says, "For Emmanuel, my grandfather Ignatz was the greatest achievement of his life." Ignatz becomes a respected judge, and he and Valerie fall in love with each other. In one scene, Ignatz and Valerie are shown just after they have made love, and the judge asks for her verdict. She answers playfully, "The judge is a hard man. His sentences are often stiff."

Ignatz soon has a meeting with the Chief Justice, who tells him he can be appointed to the Central Court if he changes his last name to something more Hungarian. Ignatz, his brother, and Valerie all decide to change their name from Sonnenschein to Sors, choosing their new last name from a dictionary. They seek Emmanuel’s approval, and he gives it, saying, "Names are not given to us by God."

Valerie becomes pregnant, and she and Ignatz marry, even though they are first cousins and have been raised as brother and sister. The traditional wedding is performed by a rabbi in a beautiful synagogue. When Ignatz carries out the ceremonial breaking of the glass, the crowd shouts, "Mazeltov!"

Ignatz and Valerie have two sons, Istvan and Adam, and things go pretty well for the Sors family until World War I breaks out. Ignatz serves as a military judge for the duration of the war, and he feels privileged to personally meet Emperor Franz Joseph, who tells him, "Respect the differences and exercise tolerance." But the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy collapses when it winds up on the losing side in the war, and Ignatz comes home a man without feelings. Ignatz’ parents die, and in a few years the broken Ignatz passes on as well, leaving Valerie the head of the family. For the remainder of the film, Valerie is played by the older actress Rosemary Harris.

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