Don Shanahan Every Movie Has a Lesson Jul 23, 2025 3/5

"1945" is unafraid to portray off-putting prejudice over the course of a steady and slow build by director Ferenc Török.

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Joanne Laurier World Socialist Web Site Feb 21, 2021

Cut off from a genuine left-wing criticism of Stalinism, Eastern European intellectuals such as director Török and scriptwriter Szántó still generally and unthinkingly lump fascism and Stalinism together.

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Steven Prokopy Third Coast Review Jun 9, 2020

This small film features a massive day of reckoning for everyone on screen, and is highly satisfying, sometimes darkly humorous, and wonderfully acted. You may have seen stories of betrayal like this before, but never told this way.

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Cate Marquis We Are Movie Geeks Apr 24, 2019 5/5

1945 is a brilliantly made film, and powerful, moving reminder of the evil that can take place under cover of wartime and the power of greed.

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Alison Gillmor Winnipeg Free Press Nov 26, 2018 4/5

The darkness of wartime reaches not only into one day in August. In this muted but powerful film, Török is also commenting, obliquely but effectively, on the rise of far-right nationalism and anti-Semitism in present-day Hungary.

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Joe Friar The Victoria Advocate Oct 28, 2018 3/4

The film's straightforward but effective narrative holds few surprises while the talented cast strengthens the storytelling especially Péter Rudolf who makes a smooth transition from comedy to drama.

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Paddy Kehoe RTÉ (Ireland) Oct 17, 2018 4/5

Marvellously directed and acted, 1945 shows how those who practice deception for their own ends are likely to pay the price and in ways they may not foresee.

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Alison Rowat The Herald (Scotland) Oct 15, 2018 4/5

Handsomely shot in black and white and just 91 minutes, Torok's picture does not linger long, yet it manages to say so much that matters.

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Leslie Felperin Guardian Oct 13, 2018 3/5

[A] sombre, accomplished but somewhat heavy-handed work...

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Saskia Baron The Arts Desk Oct 12, 2018 3/5

As nationalist fervour and racism strengthens in modern-day Hungary, it is admirable that 1945 has been made at all.

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Eddie Harrison The List Oct 8, 2018 4/5

It's the original slant that 1945 offers on the Holocaust that makes it essential, if bleak viewing.

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Ezequiel Boetti Otroscines.com Oct 2, 2018 3/5

Török is a precious director in his formal decisions, and delivers several images of enormous symbolic power. [Full Review in Spanish]

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Anne Brodie What She Said Oct 2, 2018

Nationalism, protectionism, bigotry and stunning cruelty are the order of the day. The film is precise and stark in black and white. Even the weather and the animals and birds are foretelling doom.

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Pablo O. Scholz Clarín Sep 20, 2018

Memory, justice and remorse prevail in this film about sins. [Full review in Spanish]

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Ken Eisner Georgia Straight Aug 27, 2018

1945 manages to work itself toward a darkly poetic finish.

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Jim Slotek Original Cin Aug 24, 2018 A

As powerful a fable about the relentless thrall of guilt as has ever been put to the screen.

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Chris Knight National Post Aug 23, 2018 3/5

The film is nonetheless a trenchant examination of what happens in the wake of genocide, to survivors, witnesses, the participants and those who merely stood and watched.

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Barry Paris Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Jul 20, 2018 3/4

Torok's powerfully absorbing tale juggles multiple characters and themes -- guilt, greed, justice. It's imperfect, but it has a crucial message about the complicity of "little people" in the context of unfathomably bigger crimes.

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Daniel Barnes Sacramento News & Review Jul 5, 2018 3/5

1945 is an impeccably acted examination of the moral fester of the Holocaust, although the conclusion lacks the necessary impact.

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Robert Denerstein Denerstein Unleashed Jun 22, 2018

Driven by the agitation and anxiety of the town's populace, 1945 does... continue the exploration of an inexhaustible and inescapable subject.

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