Our documentary series presents the persecution of the Christian Churches, the relationship of state and church, the methods employed by the organs of State Security, and the lives of confessors and agents in the era of the communist one-party system.
We have been gathering material for the film for years. We represent this era with several so-far unknown documents, diary extracts, contemporary newsreels, reports and State Security surveillance photographs, as well as the reminiscences of survivors.
In our documentary we emphasize the role of those unjustly slandered priests, monks, nuns and clergymen, who spent years in prison simply because they stayed true to their faith – Cardinal József Mindszenty, Vendel Endrédy, Ödön Lénárd, Ágnes Tímár, Gábor Tabódy, Elemér Rédly, Szilveszter Sólymos, László Emődy, Alajos Werner, Sándor Somogyi, Imre Mócsy, Elemér Csávossy, György Bulányi and Rafael Kriszten; and those who stood in the cross-fire of State Security, like Gellért Békés, Ferenc Szabó, Gábor Adriányi, Béla Balás and Lajos Bajcsy, just to mention a few of those who gave strength to a lot of people with their attitude and faith during the dictatorship.
The formerly imprisoned confessors revisiting the Transit and Fő Street prisons, as well as the prisons in Vác and Kalocsa, evoke their sufferings through their memories.
Viewers can gain an insight into the preparation of show trials against the different, secretly operating, small religious communities, and the surveillance and apprehension of victims through the reports of agents and the evaluations of contact officers.
The documents organically and elementally infiltrate the powerful visual world of the film, while dynamic camera movements portray the stages of the lives of confessors and agents: prisons, courtrooms, monasteries, locations of secret ordinations.
Certain events are simultaneously recreated by the reports of state security agents, the evaluations of contact officers, the interceptions of the secret police and the personal memories of the confessors.
We have rendered the dramatic events of the past and the real-life situations palpable by recreated film sequences. These scenes are authentic representations of the confessions of victims and the reports of agents.
Our documentary is a genuine testimony of an era, many victims and servants of which still live amongst us today. With our film, we wish to serve the renewal of the Christian Churches.
Katalin Petényi