CIFF 2012: The Exam

This takes place in late 1950s Hungary. A young spy, Andris, is to be tested for his loyalty. He is the type that manages some minor espionage agents, collecting their information as they monitor certain people, and passing on their info to his own handler, Markos. Unknown to Andris, Markos has a team opposite his apartment building, monitoring Andris' moves, tapping his conversations. The exam involves positioning Andris with opportunities to reveal his identity or betray his organization, and seeing if he will take that step to do so.

The story shows us how Markos tries to stay ahead of the action as it moves pretty quickly, taking place over a few days around Christmas. An innocuous test observer turns out to have a more powerful position than he appears, which affects Markos.

The action and events were pretty interesting to watch play out. At the beginning parts of the story, the character of Markos seems to have too much of a screen presence, a bit overshadowing that of Andris, who needs to be more front and center. But this choice is borne out by the events later, when we see Andris has more to hide than we were led to believe. As a result, we see Markos in a different and sympathetic light, as the man he mentored turns out to betray him in a way. But as Markos says earlier in the story, he (Markos) wouldn't even betray his organization for his wife, but instead chooses something else.