In this child's-eye view of the 1956 Hungarian uprising, there is gunfire in the streets, school is closed and life for the children is a holiday. Rarely leaving their apartment, the adults are terrified, except Grandma who returns from shopping with bullet-ridden bread. The homely father thinks he's another Fred Astaire and secretly wishes to pursue a career in America; the mother worries about her lover; Grandma is militant; 10-year-old Tomi is obsessed with sex; and little Anamari shouts politically dangerous slogans out the window. Péter Gcrdos offers a warm, lovable tragicomedy of a household's reaction to a traumatic world. Whooping Cough won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1987 Montréal World Film Festival.

Hungary: 50 Years After 1956

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising in 1956, a watershed year in that Central European nation's modern history, the Canadian Film Institute in Ottawa assembled this package of four films which deal, in various cinematic styles, with the tumultuous events of October 1956. This series is presented in collaboration with Embassy of the Republic of Hungary (Ottawa) and Magyar Filmunio (Budapest). Special thanks to the National Arts Centre (Ottawa).