Summary
In a stark tableau of early 20th-century Hungarian social realism, "Árendás zsidó" meticulously charts the agonizing struggle of Mendel, an aging Jewish tenant farmer, whose profound connection to the land he has painstakingly cultivated for decades is brutally severed by the rapacious schemes of István, the Baron Károly’s prejudiced estate manager. As the clock ticks down on an expiring lease, István, driven by avarice and latent anti-Semitism, engineers Mendel's dispossession, threatening to uproot not just his livelihood, but his very identity and the future of his devoted daughter, Leah, and her child. The narrative unfolds with a quiet intensity, depicting Mendel’s stoic but ultimately futile appeals to an indifferent bureaucracy and a village community torn between hesitant sympathy and ingrained prejudice. It falls to Leah, a figure of nascent female agency and fierce resolve, to traverse the labyrinthine corridors of power, sifting through dusty archives and confronting systemic indifference, in a desperate bid to unearth a forgotten legal clause or a crucial document that might overturn the injustice. The climax erupts in a tense courtroom drama, where Leah’s unyielding persistence uncovers a long-lost addendum to the original lease, signed by the Baron's deceased father, unequivocally affirming Mendel’s perpetual tenancy. The ensuing verdict, a bittersweet triumph, restores Mendel to his land, yet leaves an indelible mark of the battle fought, concluding not with facile jubilation, but with a poignant affirmation of resilience against the enduring currents of prejudice and power.
