THE STORY
Synopsis
A Communist country in the 1950s. Dictatorship is at its peak. Rules of life change frequently and the police have unrestricted power against suspected dissidents by any force necessary. The latest decree from this raging dictator is the ban on listening to music.
Szabo, our protagonist, an everyday man, is on his way home when he witnesses two policemen's brutal action against a boy who inadvertently broke this new law. Though afraid to confront the police to help the boy, at home his oppressed rage over this thousandth injustice brings the revolutionary out of him and he puts the record of his favorite opera on the player, defiantly loudly.
Surely enough, soon there's violent knock on the door: the two policemen barge in. Szabo is intimidated at first, and meekly obliges the command to turn off the music.
The officers leave and Szabo's rebel is back in him. He puts on the music, albeit softer. But the police are back, this time thanks to an informant. Szabo expects to be crushed this time, but instead he senses the Sergeant's own inner doubts, who is in charge of the mindlessly brutal Corporal. Intrigued, Szabo lures the sergeant into a theoretical debate over this new law.
The sergeant's wavering ideological brainwash is no match against Szabo's sophisticated intellect and reasoning in the duel of words. After a while Szabo even dares to believe that he will emerge the winner and hopes to keep his curtailed but relative freedom and his music record intact.
But he learns in a very painful way that such an ending belongs to the fairy tales in this country. His gramophone record as well as his bones are broken, his bravery is crushed. As he is soaking up the tears of defeat when dragged towards the police car in cuffs, he suddenly begins to hear the opera ariain his mind.
Nessun Dorma, the very music that got him into trouble, now comes to his unlikely redemption. As the uplifting melody fills his soul, it transcends him from this vale of tears into a realm where he indeed becomes invincible.