Keep Quiet

At the center of filmmakers Sam Blair and Joseph Martin's documentary lies the amazing transformation of Hungarian politician Csanad Szegedi, but his personal journey also leads to a broader consideration here of his country's recent political history and present-day racial attitudes. Szegedi was an important leader in the nationalist (and definitely anti-Semitic) Jobbik political party, as well as a founding member of its paramilitary wing; he was even elected to the European Parliament. In 2012, however, rumors began to circulate that he had Jewish ancestry, which his maternal grandmother later confirmed. In fact, she was a survivor of Auschwitz, and she says that she refrained from telling Szegedi about his lineage because of hostility that persisted in Hungary after the war, even though she was pained by his political choices. Ostracized from Jobbik, he turned to sympathetic Rabbi Baruch Oberlander, leader of Chabad Lubavitch in Budapest, for instruction, and he now lives as an Orthodox Jew, seeking forgiveness for his past actions and testifying publicly about his life experience. Szegedi's story reveals the strong strain of anti-Semitism that remains in Hungarian right-wing political circles—where he is treated as a pariah. But, somewhat ironically, the virulently anti-Semitic position he took while in Jobbik also makes him suspect to many fellow Jews, some of whom denounce him as a charlatan during a speech in Canada. Interviews with Szegedi and Oberlander, along with the man who “outed” Szegedi, are interspersed with archival footage and film of Szegedi with his grandmother and mother, as well as of his visit to Auschwitz. Telling a powerful personal and political story, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)