Around 20 years later, some members of highwayman Sándor Rózsa's guerrilla band, believed to be some of Kossuth's last supporters, are known to be interned among the prisoners in a camp.

When one of the guerrillas, János Gajdar, is identified as a murderer by an old woman, he starts aiding his captors by acting as an informant.

The prison guards easily discover suspects, people whose cells had been left unlocked for the night, and start interrogating them in the hope of finding Sándor himself.

The suspects are tricked into revealing the remaining guerrillas when they are given a chance to form a new military unit out of former bandits and informed that Sándor, who was not among the prisoners, has been pardoned.

The film does, though, use Jancsó's favourite setting, the Hungarian puszta (steppe), shot in characteristically oppressive sunlight.

[5] A collection of Miklós Jancsó's films, including The Round-Up, was released on Blu-ray in April 2022 by Kino Lorber.

[10] The brutal, dictatorial methods depicted in the film were read by local audiences as a partial allegory for the clampdown that happened following Hungary's failed 1956 uprising against Soviet Russia.