BALKAN CHAMPION

Duration: 1h 26m
Country: Germania
Year: 2006

The 1990s were a turbulent time in Romania’s recent history, a period marked by confusion and anxiety. The value system of the communist regime had vanished. Previously, Ceaușescu had been the enemy of all, a situation that fostered a certain solidarity among people. It had been easier then to distinguish between friends and foes. With the dictator’s physical disappearance, people felt free to voice their own frustrations—and, more often than not, they did so violently. The social climate was favorable to conflicts of all kinds, including ethnic ones.

The film reveals this period through the lens of a direct experience. Its main character is the author’s own father, whose involvement in the events following the Revolution brought about crucial changes in the life of the entire family. As a respected member of the Hungarian minority, he spoke out firmly against the Securitate. In the early 1990s, such a stance amounted to an act of political suicide and even placed his life in danger. Sixteen years later, after five unsuccessful attempts to win a seat in Parliament, this champion of integrity and intransigence still cannot find his place in the new system.