“Time past and time future/ what might have been and what has been/ point to one end, which is always present”--T.S. Eliot, quoted by Z. Huszárik.
With an evocation of fragmented time unequaled outside of the work of Resnais, Zoltán Huszárik remains faithful to the surrealist spirit and the associative language of the writings of Hungarian novelist Gyula Krudy on which Sinbad is based. The film revolves around the memories of an aging Don Juan/Don Quixote who sifts through his past in a vain, final search for peace. Sinbad's drives and destiny - repeated death and resurrection - are materialized and anthropomorphized in the film's images. “What does Sinbad want?” asks Huszárik. “The motives of his personalities are so extensive and rich that all the connoisseurs of life and those who strive for a total world can be found in him.... First of all, to live, to exist in all milieux - in the landscape, in the ladies, in the objects, in the good flavor of the food, in the reflection of faded wine glasses, and in the mossy crosses of graveyards. The urgent strive for self-shaping sets up the store of his experiences....”
“Sinbad is the visual equivalent of a Baudelaire poem - complex, rich in images, lush in style, disciplined in structure.” --Michael Webb, AFI