ABSTRACT
The Hungarian transition from Communist party rule and Soviet
occupation to a market economy and a parliamentary political system in
the years following the 1989 vote by the Hungarian Communist Party to
dissolve itself was felt by many Hungarian filmmakers to have triggered
an “identity crisis.” After years of honing their skills as subtle dissidents,
dodging censorship and sensitively criticizing the social and psychological
damage done by the passing years of great and petty repressions, it was
not at all clear what they should be making films about. They also lost
the security of the salaries, however modest, and production budgets they
had received when the film industry was state owned. Both artistically and
financially, then, filmmakers faced traumatic changes.
