Pál Schiffer’s film follows workers from Szabolcs County who travel hundreds of kilometres every week between their homes in eastern Hungary and their workplaces in Budapest. Interviews conducted on trains, in the workers’ homes, and in a Roma settlement in Újfehértó reveal the interconnected realities of commuting, poverty, family conflicts, and social exclusion. The Black Train became one of the seminal early works of Hungary’s sociographic documentary filmmaking of the 1970s.