* MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS AT THE END * Quite well made and played film version of Mór Jókai's classic 19th century novel on Mihály Tímár, the captain of a commercial Danube ship in the 1830s, who finds unexpected fortune by meeting a Turkish aristocrat fleeing from his home country with his daughter Tímea. On their journey, they find an unknown island on the Danube, called the Senki szigete (the Island of No-one), a sort of earthly paradise, with only an old woman and her young daughter Noémi living on it. When they continue their journey, the old Turk dies, leaving the young girl and all his riches to Tímár. Tímár leaves Tímea with his employer's family and becomes and entrepreneur himself with the help of the Turk's diamonds. The young girl is mistreated by the employer's evil daughter, Athalie, but when Tímár becomes rich, he makes his former employer lose all his money and marries Tímea. Everything could go on well from now on, but Mihály's and Tímea's marriage is not happy because they don't love each other - and Mihály can't keep himself from thinking of Noémi and her beautiful island...
They film is well able to render the essential of the novel's plot, with aptly leaving out some subplots and unnecessary elements, like the story of how Noémi found the child Dódi that she then raises with Tímár on the island. This justification was probably required for a morally righteous tale in the 19th century, but in the film version, the little boy is simply their own...
They film is well able to render the essential of the novel's plot, with aptly leaving out some subplots and unnecessary elements, like the story of how Noémi found the child Dódi that she then raises with Tímár on the island. This justification was probably required for a morally righteous tale in the 19th century, but in the film version, the little boy is simply their own...