István Gaál, who studied at the Centro Sperimentale in Rome, in his accomplished first feature was already clearly both an auteur, involved in every aspect of his craft, and a modernist. Current examines the disillusionment of a generation in the story of a group of young people on vacation in a small village on the banks of a river. The atmosphere is frivolous and carefree until one of them drowns in the swift-flowing current. The tragedy causes a complete if gradual break, both within the group and in each life as explored in the film's second half. Gaál achieves a marvelous sense of atmosphere in a narrative style that privileges the rhythms of story and keen observation of character over dialogue and the machinations of plot. The painterly quality of his images, here and in The Falcon (see October 10), owes to Gaál's interest in the "realistic abstraction" of Cézanne.