There's richness and warmth here - but only in the first hour of this bone-achingly long survey of three persecuted generations of a Hungarian Jewish family. Director István Szabo has made a sort of Cry, the Beloved Country for the torments of his native Hungary, but his devotion leads him to hold whole sequences far too long: the Olympic fencing section, with its events, anthems and triumphant return, is especially indulgent. The device of having Ralph Fiennes as three generations of tortured souls doesn't really work, though Fiennes, becoming the Tom Courtenay of his day, twitches many an eyelid in all three roles. Jennifer Ehle is the best of 'his' women in this richly detailed but finally enervating film.


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