The Boys of Paul Street / A Pál-utcai fiúk - by Zoltán Fábri (1969)

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The novel is about schoolboys in the rapidly developing Budapest at the turn of the 20th century, who defend their playground, the "grund", from the "redshirts", a team of other boys who want to occupy it. The boys regard the "grund" as their "Fatherland", constitute themselves its "National Army" and constantly use all the terminology of nationalism as common at the time in Hungary as elsewhere in Europe.

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Paul street boys sculpture in Budapest

The "battle", fought with "sandbombs", ends when the smallest and weakest boy, Ernő Nemecsek, whom the other boys earlier mistakenly thought a "traitor", dies. Nemecsek, already gravely ill, dies of the effects of pneumonia after joining the battle in spite of his serious illness.




Soon after his death, the boys are chased off their beloved "grund"/"Fatherland" by engineers who inform them that an apartment building will be erected on the spot. The book ends with a mood of dejection and disillusion, with a character remarking bitterly "The Fatherland has betrayed us". The book can thus be seen as a biting satire of European nationalism and a premonition of the First World War which broke out a few years after its publication. The message comes through, although the plot does not involve politics and is an easy reading for children.





The 1934 film version, retitled No Greater Glory, removes much of the political symbolism and simply presents the plot as a sentimental, touching story of childlike dedication and self-sacrifice.



IMDB info 7.9/10 from 623 users
Stars: Mari Töröcsik, Sándor Pécsi and László Kozák
Production land: Hungary | USA
Run time: ~106 min