AFI FILM FEST: WEEK 2

L istings and commentary for Week 2 of the American Film Institute Film Festival of Los Angeles, which runs through March 26:

THURSDAY

“Countdown” (Hungary, 1986, 5:30 p.m.). A new social/economic phenomenon in Hungary is made poignantly personal as a young, happily married couple risk their entire savings for the husband to become “private”--to own his own huge hauling truck and to contract for it. In this somber, marvelously performed story, shot appropriately in black and white, director Pal Erdoss traces the cataclysmic chain of events that grow from this small step toward private enterprise. The self-effacing performances of both Erika Ozsda as the wife and Karoly Eperjes as the husband go a long way to making a bleak subject gripping. Recommended.