Today he is 85 years old, a tough man whose strength is being sapped in vain by time, but he resists. Today, the actor Gábor Koncz is 85 years old, whose Mezőkeresztes, the weight of peasant life and faith gave him the strength to walk the path of life with a straight waist.
If he was born on Klauzál Square on July 8, 1938, where there is a light bulb in the room, where there is maybe even frothy cocoa on the table in the morning, we would not know him today. Because he always fed on what Mezőkeresztes received in his genes, which was burned into him from the bittersweet everyday life of the peasant world. This world gave us the defiant, stubborn, sometimes scratchy Gábor Koncz.
Of course, he merged with the characters, but most of the time he could give himself. Although people mostly know him as Borus Demeter, the boatman on the Danube, and Ference Prohászka, the brave Gyula in winter and summer, he does not mention them on the eve of his 85th birthday. But two works by the brilliant director Zoltán Fábri. Magyarokat and Fábián Bálint's meeting with God. The latter is about the struggle and search for God of the tormented peasant who has become a plaything of history. According to Gábor Koncz, he felt the most in this film that he could give himself completely:
"I thought of my ancestors, I copied them, because that's where I'm from," says Gábor Koncz, who in a previous interview , when asked what he got from being a peasant, conjured up a wonderful picture: "Everything. Food, air, thought, support and all this from my father and mother."
During the years in Mezőkeresztes, at a young age, he also saw when the family's horses were taken to the production cooperative in the fifties. And Gábor Koncz looked at the desperate faces and clenched fists of his father and grandfather and understood then that "the peasant's god is not the land, but the horse." The years in Mezőkeresztes made him what he became. And that is why he is proud that there is now a statue of him in the city: "Next to the church, three meters high," says the popular actor, who, like Bálint Fábián, searched for God, but he found him. "When IV. I played Béla, in the role I asked the archbishop why God didn't help me in the war with the Tatars at that time. And why does it punish the good and reward the evil? Big questions.
Nevertheless, I believe, I am religious, but I know that God owes me. I would be happy if you would stroke my head sometimes."
On his birthday today, the artists of the Újszínház visit him at his home and a biographical documentary is being made about him. Although he feels the pain of 85 years, he still goes hunting regularly and will soon travel to Croatia with his wife to relax a bit. "I'm going because of him, I've been everywhere, I've seen everything," he says in this regard. He received his films on DVD, sometimes he even sits down to watch one of his works, the only thing that saddens him is that he is the only one of the actors who is still alive. Even at the age of 85, he is still preoccupied with the affairs of the world, and he really doesn't like what he reads or hears about the Ukrainian-Russian war, and he thinks that the United States is behind the conflict
“America is horrible. They exterminated the Indians and then took the slaves there on a galley. Then they went to Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea. I don't like it when someone uses power and money to do politics"
- He continues.
Gábor Koncz is 85 years old. The oeuvre of the peasant boy from Mezőkeresztes is complete. Starting from an adobe house without electric lighting, he went down in history. However, like artists in general, they are plagued by doubts. Sometimes he dreams that there will be many people at his funeral, and other times he wakes up at night to see that only three mourners will be there. There will be many. But we hope not until many years from now. Happy Birthday!
Featured image: MTVA Photo: Zsolt Zih
