The release date for Géza Bereményi’s A Hídember (The Bridgeman, 2002), a treatment of the life of Hungarian count, philanthropist and reluctant revolutionary István Széchenyi, had long been known: 11 April 2002. But only after 7 April, the day of the first round of the Hungarian parliamentary elections, did the significance of this timing become evident.

Fidesz, the right-wing party whose coalition government had supported the making of the film financially and ideologically, had done badly in the first round and looked set to lose power. Viktor Orbán, the party’s leader and prime minister, responded with a last-minute campaign that tried to portray his opponents as “sell-outs” to international capital. So A Hídember, the story of the count who tried to stand up to Hungary’s Austrian rulers during the revolution of 1848 to 49, suddenly looked like additional fodder for the party’s publicity mill.

Read more at Kinoeye.org

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