Budapest  - The veteran Hungarian director Peter Bacso - best known for The Witness, his biting satire on the absurdity of the communist system - has died at the age of 81.

Wednesday's death of a legend of Hungarian cinema was announced by the Association of Hungarian Film Artists. No further details were given, but Bacso was known to have been suffering from a lengthy illness.

Bacso was born in 1928 in Kosice, now in Slovakia. He enrolled in the Budapest Academy of Theatre and Film in 1946 and worked as a scriptwriter after graduating in
1950.

Bacso was living in the Hungarian capital as the Hungarian communist party consolidated its power through intimidation and terror. He directed his first film in 1963.

It was Bacso's fifth film as director and screenwriter, 1969's The Witness, which brought him international recognition, albeit not until 1981 when it was shown to great acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival.

The satire of Stalinist-era communism in Hungary tells the story of Jozsef Pelikan, who finds himself imprisoned for the illicit slaughtering of a pig.

The naive dyke keeper is surprised to receive a pardon and finds himself mysteriously elevated to various managerial positions, where his incompetent attempts at running things invariably end in hilarious disaster.

At the end of the film, we learn that Pelikan must repay his favoured treatment by testifying against a friend who is being framed at a show trial. At the last minute, he finds himself unable to lie and is himself sentenced to death, only to be released years later during an amnesty.

The film was suppressed by the censors for a decade before it was finally shown in Hungary. Given the Iron Curtain was still in place in 1979, it was a sign of the relative freedom of expression in Hungary that it was shown at all.

Forty years after it was made, The Witness continues to top Hungarians' lists of their favourite films. Quotes from the movie, such as "The international situation is intensifying" and "He is suspect who is not a suspect" have passed into everyday usage.

Although Bacso directed more than 30 feature films, many of which met with popular and critical success, it is for his inventive and humane broadside at the communist system that he is best remembered.

During a career spanning half a century, Bacso received Hungary's top cultural award, the Kossuth Prize. He was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at this year's Hungarian Film Festival, at which, with characteristic wit, he expressed his surprise.

"I was dumbfounded to learn that I have been occupied with my life's work," Bocso said. "All I ever wanted to do was make films. It never crossed my mind that I was wrestling with a lifetime's achievement." (dpa)