KEEP QUIET

UK/Hungary, 2016, 90 minutes, Colour.
Csanad Szegedi.
Directed by Sam Blair, Joseph Martin.

This is an intriguing documentary.

The setting is Hungary and the production is a British/ Hungarian collaboration.

The film focuses on its central character, Csanad Szegedi, buying a ticket for Auschwitz from a Budapest station and sharing a carriage with an elderly lady, her number on her arm, also travelling to Auschwitz. He begins to explain himself…

Drawing on a great deal of filmed footage and newsreel material, the early part of the film shows the background of the central character, photos of his family, his grandparents and parents, stories about their lives and his upbringing, his schooling where he moved towards a very right wing stance, continuing this after he left school, becoming involved in Hungarian politics, becoming an initial member of Jobblik, a political fascist movement with neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic traits, as well as establishing the Hungarian Guard, later abolished, of active young men and women who become involved in anti-Semitic and right wing protests.

He is a capable man, quickly involved in the leadership of the groups, and soon to become elected to the European Parliament as one of the representatives of Jobblik where he gives attacking and inflammatory speeches. A number of journalists and commentators supplied talking head interviews, especially noted journalist Anne Applebaum.

And then the film changes tack. A man emerges who offers background to the central character’s family, revealing that his grandparents were Jewish, that his grandmother had been in Auschwitz, had survived, unlike the rest of her family, had moved back to Hungary, married and established her family, their concealing their Jewish identity to escape further persecution.

Needless to say, this is quite a shock.

What is someone to do who is in the limelight for extreme views and anti-Semitic stances? What he does is to investigate further, talk to his grandmother and discover the truth. Whatever the traits of his personality and his motivation, he switches to becoming a serious Jew. He studies, consults a rabbi in Hungary who then accompanies him on his conversion journey, expressing that the Torah has statements on repentance and regret. As the new convert becomes more immersed in Orthodox Judaism, praise and rituals, kosher food, he attends rallies in Berlin and around Europe.

Just as the audience must be wondering how this conversion could have taken place, psychologically and emotionally, part of the audience at the conferences begin to ask him the same questions, some considering that his conversion is fake, that he has not changed, and, if he has, how is this possible. Answers are supplied – and the film audience does have the background with the rabbi and filmed conversations with him but it is quite understandable how questions about his authenticity can be asked.

Very significant is his visit to Auschwitz with the rabbi, is learning what happened there, talking with the elderly lady from the train who is very persuasive in her memories, photos from the time, explanation of the work, the food, the clothes, as well as the mass executions and the getting rid of the ashes in water so that they would not spread in the air… He had not necessarily been a Holocaust denier, but had underestimated it, comparing it to so many sad events throughout history.

There is a significant episode when he goes to Canada with the rabbi to address a conference, being interrogated by security officials at Montréal airport, kept for three hours, his European Parliamentary passport confiscated and he is told to leave Canada by the end of the next day. This is a shock to him. What he does is to record his speech straight to camera into an empty room, relying on it being broadcast after he leaves.

While there is a little indication of how his fellow extremists react, demonstrating out his outside his house, some boycotting, we leave him with his mission in life to establish himself as a serious Jew and to make some amends for the stances he took in his life. He is supported by his grandmother and her stories – and grieved when she dies some months later.

With the right-wing government in Hungary at the time and with the extremist parties and groups rising up, anti-migration riots throughout Europe, this is a helpful 90 minute glimpse into a leading character and his experiences.