Witman fiúk is situated in a provincial town in Central Europe on the eve of the First World War. The two brothers in the title, János and Ernó, grow up in middle-class surroundings where people can afford to live in comfortable luxury. However when their father suddenly dies, the upbringing of the boys starts to display holes. Their cold mother (played by Maia Morgenstern) is hardly affected by the death of her husband and she soon has a lover. The boys are meanwhile obsessed by the death. They pay nocturnal visits to their father’s grave and start to dissect animals. At school, their rather strange behaviour leads to reprisals by other pupils. When the elder brother János meets the pretty young prostitute Irén, she becomes the new object of their obsession. The boys start playing truant and the girl, who is at first charmed by the boys youth, soon starts demanding lots of gifts. János and Ernó take an interest in the family jewels that their mother keeps in her bedroom.Witman Fiúk is a kind of Freudian case-study in the land of Dracula. The increasingly bizarre behaviour of the brothers is acted naturally and effectively photographed in dark brown tints by Tibor Mathé, the veteran cameraman who was also responsible for Szász’ Woyzeck.
