During the Nazi occupation, the wife of a wanted resistance agent (Bansagi) is forced to go into hiding in Budapest, taking the name Kata and posing as wife of another resistance worker (Andorai), who goes under the alias Janos Biro. Together they live in close quarters with an unsuspecting older couple. At a time of heightened suspicion with informers everywhere, Janos is initially nervous about Kata’s ability to stay under the radar. Soon their relationship thaws and they find themselves drawn to each other, even though both are married to other people. Will they — and their unexpected love — survive?

Szabo’s tense film evokes the fear and paranoia that defined the Nazi occupation, particularly for those secretly fighting against it . Both leads display potent on-screen chemistry. At first, Kata is unprepared to take on the identity of a strange man’s wife, and Janos is rightly concerned about her cracking and exposing him in the process. At a moment when life itself feels so tenuous, the desperate, passionate romance that follows feels totally credible. Cinematographer Lajos Koltai shoots wartime Budapest in a cold, blue-gray palette, reinforcing the bleak predicament of its citizens. Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Film, “Confidence” is ripe for re-discovery forty years after its initial release.