21st Century

Jan 2, 2023

Painter István Sándorfi left Hungary when he was 8 years old. His father was the director of IBM in Hungary, he was convicted in a mock trial, and after his release the family had to flee. They ended up in Paris, where Sándorfi became a world-famous painter, yet his name was hardly known in Hungary. Hungarian roots, politics, and the French environment were as ingrained in his every brushstroke as childhood and adult traumas. Viewers can get to know this surreal yet ultimately realistic world, the special world of the high-society womanizer, yet sensitive and withdrawn artist, István Sándorfi, in Borbála Kerekes' film.

Jan 9, 2023

How did people live in the Kingdom of Hungary during World War II, when our soldiers were maintaining order in Kherson and the front had not yet reached its borders? What is similar about that situation to today?

Jan 16, 2023

There is no other point in our past that is associated with so many different scientific hypotheses and fantastical beliefs as our prehistory. But with the sensational archaeological discoveries of the past ten years, the explosive development of the science of archaeogenetics, and the reinterpretation of written sources, we are suddenly closer than ever to deciphering it.

Jan 23, 2023

Yugoslav Indians clashed with East German cowboys, and the Black Army beat the Americans. Happy Unhappy manufactured plastic soldiers and copied Western hit products. War in the children's room during the peace struggle, and the heyday of mask injection molding factories with nodding dogs, Monchhichis and Luke Skywalkers.

Jan 30, 2023

For 24 years, a super agent who existed only on paper protected the People's Republic. The stories of the Hungarian James Bond, codenamed Hód, sold hundreds of thousands of copies even during the years of the regime change. But who cared that spy novels were being written in the Eastern Bloc? And what was true about the glittering spy world that socialist cultural policy wanted to show?

Feb 6, 2023

When we hear the term experimental housing estate from the socialist era, most people certainly don't think of a breezy, livable housing estate consisting of 3-4-story buildings and apartments with balconies and modern furniture. However, this all became a reality in the early sixties and the houses have been standing ever since. But who could move there and who lives there now?

Feb 13, 2023

The skirt could not be short, and the kiss could only be an imitation. In the 1950s, it was still unthinkable for anyone to speak freely about sexuality, nudity, and physicality. And it was even more impossible to show it. Then came the modernist Kádár regime, which first turned a blind eye to the miniskirt, and then allowed a West German enlightenment film to be released in cinemas. Sex first made its way into art, to seep from films and pop songs into everyday public discourse. Of course, the path was not smooth, from shameless glances to naturalistic bed scenes. It is true that 50 years have passed in the meantime. How the relationship between power and sex developed is what Vanda Szondi's film seeks to answer.

Feb 20, 2023

Do you still remember the campaign leading up to the first free parliamentary elections after the change of regime? According to analysts, there were both amateur and professional posters and campaign films. We show some of them and try to find out what should have been done differently 33 years ago to make today's Hungary different.

Feb 27, 2023

Fifty years ago, on January 27, 1973, a Hungarian delegation of soldiers and diplomats set off for South Vietnam. It is characteristic of their unpreparedness that they arrived in Saigon in 40-degree heat wearing overcoats, where they were not welcomed anyway. Over the course of two and a half years, 636 Hungarians served in the International Control and Supervision Commission, whose basic task was to check which side in the divided country was violating the ceasefire. Why was this mission impossible?

Mar 6, 2023

What makes an internationally successful banker – especially at that time – take a poorly paid job and become Hungarian Prime Minister? And then what leads to the downfall of the Republic of Hungary? Secrets from the career of Péter Medgyessy.

Mar 13, 2023

They ran for their lives, shot cars in the face, and couldn't even be sure that the information they learned would reach their listeners and readers. A few days in chaos and a hail of bullets, or the lives of Hungarian journalists during the Romanian revolution.

Mar 20, 2023

He often called his friends at night to tell them he had finished a poem. Sometimes he would stay up all night in his clothes, afraid that they would come for him. Even as an adult, his mother or sister-in-law would cancel meetings if he wanted to hide from the world. Everyone who knew him loved him, but none of his three great loves like to talk about him. Who was János Pilinszky, the man hiding behind the beautiful lines?

Mar 27, 2023

A strange experiment in Hungarian film history was undertaken in Pápa in 1972. Ferenc Kardos and his brother István Kardos wanted to film a strange retelling of the 1848 revolution and freedom struggle with 17-18 year old students. They organized young people from Budapest and Pápa, who spent a month in a freedom that few people had at the time. We were there for the 50th anniversary of the film's premiere in 1973.

Apr 3, 2023

It started as a peace festival, but ended in a mass dispersal. In 1984, concerts in Pusztavac were stopped with tear gas and water cannon after a crowd of tens of thousands attacked the police with beer bottles. The festival, which became known as the Pusztavac Battle, was originally intended as a celebration of socialist peace, but due to poor organization, it caused a generational shock for young rock music fans. Several people were convicted for the mishap, and the secret service monitored those who spread news and photos about the event for years.

Apr 17, 2023

We need Mohács! But is it just self-pity, or the exact details of the fateful battle? Thanks to the 5-year-long work and findings of the research team that discovered Suleiman's tomb, we can now know much more precisely what happened on August 29, 1526. A new source has been discovered and previously unused methods have been used to clean the image of the excess that has accumulated over the centuries.

Apr 24, 2023

The stars started it, the gentlemen took it to the café, and the authorities were worried – but what was wrong with the pets? And these days, is our dog happy if we take it to a ruin pub? And does our cat really just tolerate us?

May 8, 2023

Everyone wants peace, even those who start wars. They just imagine the end, the order after peace, differently than the one who was attacked. Peace movements that are still effective in the 21st century.

May 15, 2023

Red tie, war of numbers, flag raising – this is the common experience of every pioneer. But was there more to the pioneer movement than this? Some people think it is a perfect political product, others consider it a simple children's association. Of course, it doesn't matter who, where and when was a pioneer. Róbert Koltai, for example, still remembers that his teachers regularly warned him: a pioneer from Stalingrad must set an especially important example.

May 22, 2023

Parodies, comedies, funny scenes and a show that has been shedding jokes for years. But what is it like when János Gálvölgyi plays a serious, dramatic or even tragic role? How difficult is it to make the viewer forget "A" Gálvölgyi in order to get to know a fantastic actor? A portrait full of surprises about János Gálvölgyi, about whom most people think they know everything.

Jun 5, 2023

In the morning they dropped the child off at the colony nursery, ordered meat from the corner store, fulfilled the expected norm at the factory, then picked up the meat on the way home, brought the child and went about their business. The good husbands went home, the bad ones went to the pub. They went to the Workers' Home to have fun, where they learned manners and where they were "taught to think". And that was the way it was. The work in the ammunition factory was dangerous, but whoever worked there did not have to be drafted. Except for the one who was found to be distributing leaflets. Or the one who was the first to sing Erkel's song "The plotter is dead" at the bicycle factory when Lenin died. In '79, the only thing that could be done was to go to prison was to put greasy bread in the hands of the Lenin statue. That is, if the legend is true.

Jun 12, 2023

Fairytale worlds, fictional characters, magic, combat, adventure. Some play it at a table, others dress up, and some just read it. Living in someone else's shoes for days or even years can be attractive to many, but this was not always the case. During the half-century history of role-playing games, disappearances and murders have been linked to them, and it is still a divisive topic today. Whether people use it to escape from the world or whether it can offer more, it will turn out here.

Sep 4, 2023

A change in the history of theatre in Budapest in 1983. The Nemzeti-Víg-Madách triumvirate at the Madách Theatre thought that something completely new should come. The actors should not only act, sing and dance, but not in an operetta style. They struggled and suffered, but it was worth it, Cats has been on stage for 40 years. Before every rehearsal and experiment, they had to raise 5,000 dollars. Why? If you think you already know everything about Cats, think again.

Sep 11, 2023

They were looked down upon, many people didn't even know where their stadium was. The small Hungarian team nevertheless achieved world-famous success by playing the UEFA Cup final against Real Madrid in 1985. The Spaniards' victory was already decided in the first match, but Videoton caused a big surprise in Madrid. You can see original footage, the players of the former team, and even the secret service report on the match.

Sep 18, 2023

The 21st century deals with actors, directors and other artists many times and at length. However, even in our country, portraits of historians are very rare, even though a fair treatment of the past begins with them. Ignác Romsics was one of those who did not follow the usual (top-down) path to treat the history of Hungary between the two world wars.

Sep 25, 2023

Everyone knows who the first Hungarian to go into space was. However, the scientists working behind the scenes rarely get the spotlight. Yet Hungarian researchers, astronomers, and engineers played a much more important role in the history of space exploration.

Oct 2, 2023

They believed him to be a dynamic politician who dazzled even Western politicians with his clear and lucid speeches. Then it turned out that he had no idea about diplomacy, and he didn't understand foreign policy either - and his arrogance not only didn't help Hungarians across the border, but almost proved fatal. The fall of Arad, or the meeting between Grósz and Ceauşescu 35 years earlier and a final interview.

Oct 9, 2023

If we were to ask about the most popular sport of the Kádár regime, most people would say: football. It was really popular, but there were years when there were fewer fans in the stadiums than along the forest roads. 2-300,000 people visited a rally. We remember tough races and legendary competitors.

Oct 16, 2023

Believe it or not: Róbert Koltai will be 80 in December. He doesn't look or think like a tired old man. Age is only reflected in his memories, of his childhood, his father, the years in Kaposvár, and the films that were successful but didn't bring him the recognition of filmmakers.

Oct 30, 2023

The Prime Minister of Hungary had an idea for a solution to the housing shortage in the capital. He passed a law, allocated money from the budget, and then, in collaboration with young, enthusiastic architects and the mayor of Budapest, created a housing estate modeled after English garden towns, suitable for accommodating 20,000 workers who had immigrated from the countryside. All this happened 115 years ago. Under the giant trees, the houses with slatted windows still stand, providing a home for the descendants of the former workers who had lived here for several generations, as well as for the newly arrived.

Nov 6, 2023

A childlike, child-loving poet, whose poems have raised generations and continue to do so to this day. This is the image most of us have of Sándor Weöres. However, many people don't know that he himself was unable to experience his own childhood, that he had to be looked after as an adult, that he had difficulty meeting women, that he struggled with alcohol problems throughout his life, and that he actually found it easier to connect with cats than with children.

Nov 13, 2023

A Hungarian jazz-rock band that played a completely different kind of music than its contemporaries in the early seventies. Its members were excellent musicians, they conquered Australia in 1971, but returned home behind the Iron Curtain. For reasons that remain unclear, cultural policy never allowed them to travel abroad again, and their album was only released in small numbers. The legendary line-up of the Syrius band gave its last concert 50 years ago. They only played together for three years, and there are hardly any films of them, but their music is still loved by many.

Nov 20, 2023

Volunteers, civilian aid workers, were arrested in 1949, people who had been officially recognized until then. They were young, most of them with small children, when the police took them away. Family tragedies behind the liquidation of civilians – in the Rákosi era.

Nov 27, 2023

János Kádár, the former first secretary of the MSZMP, was originally called János Csermanek and was born in Rijeka. Much is known about what happened to him after World War II, but little is known about his youth and hardly any information about his childhood. The 21st century has traced the first six years of his life, which he lived in a small village in Somogy County, Kapoly. Many people in the village still remember him, but no Kádár cult has developed. In fact, in the 1980s, the county party committee wanted to build a memorial house for him. The building still stands today, but it is now in ruins.

Dec 4, 2023

He was determined, tough as a rock, but kind-hearted – this is how his former colleagues remember Sándor Demján, who passed away in 2018. The 21st Century broadcast reveals how a child born into poverty became one of the richest people in the country? He always knew what could be done to make a business, but he constantly took risks, and not just in poker. During socialism, he implemented Skála, participated in the privatization of the former Soviet Kamaz, and after the change of regime, he increased his wealth with real estate developments. Sándor Demján's widow, who helped her husband from the background all along, also speaks out.

Dec 11, 2023

He was both victim and culprit. He was a role model and the protagonist of conspiracy theories. He was both a statesman and a helpless person. But why don't they want to believe that he committed suicide? Did the Germans have anything to do with his death? And would Churchill really have left him an empty chair at the negotiating table? We followed the legends of the prime minister, the scout, the husband.

Dec 18, 2023

The lives of celebrities have changed dramatically in the past half century. In the days of single-channel television, there was a recipe for how to reach the top, but today we can only guess what makes stars shine. A story of hacking, talent shows, festivals and the competition for fame.

Dec 29, 2023

The first and last TV interview with Vilmos Kondor, the writer of Budapest noir. About Buda and Pest, journalists and policemen, buildings and dreams. The mysterious writer decided 4 years after the first request to make an exception for the XXI Század and sat in front of the camera.