Life 6 - Looking For My Gypsy Roots
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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Radio C, the Roma station in Budapest, has stopped broadcasting news in Romany. The reason? - there aren't enough Romany words for many 21st century concepts. Among the missing words is 'globalization.' And yet few people in the world are having more difficulty confronting globalization than the Roma in Hungary. Under-employed, under-educated and often alienated, they feel excluded from the young democracy's growing prosperity. And yet many Hungarians feel the Roma have bought this exclusion on themselves.
Roma make up a large percentage of Hungary's prison population, and have few leaders who have been successful in the wider world and are prepared to stand up for their Roma, or 'gypsy', inheritance. Radio C is in District 8 - informally known as Gypsy Harlem. It's long been the center of Budapest's gypsy culture, known across the world for its musicians. But 'gypsy' artists here face a dilemma - if they sell themselves as gypsies, they're regarded as quaint representatives of an ethnic minority. In the words of Roma writer Andrjz Mirja, the dilemma for the Roma is 'how to be a minority but still be equal.'
In Escape from Gypsy Harlem Arpad Bogdan, a prize-winning Roma filmmaker ('Boldog uj elet - 'Happy New Life'), describes how he and his friends have faced this dilemma in their working, and personal, lives, and takes us on a tour of Gypsy Harlem, The Jungle - an even tougher neighborhood in Budapest - and the more tranquil Rose Hill, where he now lives, looking for answers to the question of how to escape the gypsy artist cliche in a globalized world.
'Life 6 is a wonderfully educational series that presents the viewers with the dilemmas faced by specific individuals in the socio-historical and economic context of their communities in the midst of an increasingly globalized world. The tremendous value of this series is that, in the brief thirty minutes that each episode lasts, it captures the complexities of the lives of those in it as they face Western influence that force them to reassert, defend, or challenge their local and/or individual identities, cultures, governance, wealth distribution, and practices of achieving justice and reconciliation--to name a few...Life 6 represents these issues in an objective and analytical way that will--without question--lead into a discussion and debate about them by academics and lay audiences alike.' Aniuska Luna, African Peace and Conflict Network
'A well-crafted and heartwarming film and is certainly recommended especially for school and public libraries.' Justin Cronise, SUNY Buffalo, Educational Media Reviews Online
Citation
Main credits
Mészáros, Antónia (film producer)
Mészáros, Antónia (film director)
Tösér, Ádám (editor of moving image work)
Kyriacou, Sotira (editor of moving image work)
Bradshaw, Steve (editor of moving image work)
Bradshaw, Steve (narrator)
Bogdán, Árpád (on-screen participant)
Other credits
Editors, Ádám Tösér, Sotira Kyriacou; series editor, Steve Bradshaw.
Distributor subjects
Anthropology; Ethics; Europe; Geography; Globalization; Human Rights; Millennium Development Goals; Race and Racism; Racism; Social Justice; Social Psychology; Sociology; United Nations; Women's StudiesKeywords
WEBVTT
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[sil.]
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Globalization is making the
rich world even richer
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but billions are locked out. They\'re living on
the edge between the rich world and the poor.
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They face tough choices if
they want to join the party.
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It\'s especially hard fitting
locked out, if you\'re a minority
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in the heart of a prosperous continent. Do you stick with
your roots or do you break out into the wider world?
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That\'s the dilemma faced by one young Hungarian
but he made a breakthrough in his career
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and a discovery about his past.
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In communist Hungary,
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Gypsy children were often taken from
poor families. They were raised
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in large orphanages with
hundreds of other children.
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Among them was Árpad
Bogdán, a film director
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who turned his experiences into an award
winning feature film. It\'s moved audiences
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in Budapest and abroad.
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My film is about the dilemmas of someone
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who realizes that in order
to face the future,
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he must come to terms with his past.
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And that\'s,
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that\'s something that I still have
to do in my own life with myself.
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Today, Árpad is in district 8,
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Budapest\'s Gypsy Harlem.
But does he belong here?
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Or is he a Hungarian artist like any other.
His life is at a crucial junction.
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[sil.]
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You might think that being known as a Roma or Gypsy
director is kind of useful in this neighborhood,
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but there\'s a downside as our pats are
about to be reminded here at Radio C,
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the Roma station. When
you won every film award
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going in 2007. The cynics said
you got them out of sympathy
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because you happen to be a Gypsy.
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Nobody cares at the international
festivals, whether you are a Gypsy or not.
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People see a film and they either like
it or they don\'t. I am proud of my work
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because it gives people an insight
into a world that is mostly ignored.
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If there is a place in Hungary where
Roma culture does play a central vault,
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it\'s the Gandhi High School in Pécs. In
a country where the largest minority
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still faces acute prejudice. This school aims to
give kids a sense of pride in their heritage.
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Árpad\'s keen to show his film here.
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But he isn\'t sure, a Roma
heritage is what he wants.
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This is a life on the edge.
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When you get out from an orphanage,
you might know you are a Gypsy
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but you can\'t really relate
to that in a cultural sense
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because you don\'t speak the language, you didn\'t
grow up in the community and you don\'t share
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any of its values. Other
Gypsys accept that,
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but you never really belong with them
or the whites. You just get (inaudible)
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somewhere in between.
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Can we find the file by the date of birth?
To find out where he belongs,
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Árpad has to start here at the archives
of the child protection agency.
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Thanks to recent change in the law, everyone
can now see their own file. At last,
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Árpad may have the chance to find out who his
parents were and why he was taken from them.
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But there\'s a word of warning.
The very few success stories.
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I have to be frank about that,
that this chance is so great
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and the cultural depth so wide, so
much time spent away from each other
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in very different environment that these
families can never really be reunited properly.
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[music]
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Armed with a few names and dates, but not
much more. Árpad goes back to the orphanage,
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where he first stayed. It
closed down few years ago.
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I was brought here at the
age of three or four
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and I couldn\'t understand what all
these bars are there for everywhere.
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I was struck by this prison feeling,
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the sense of isolation.
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I felt locked up and I thought I
was being punished for something.
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I just couldn\'t figure out what
they were punishing me for.
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[music]
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Get out of here while you can. If you
are here, your life has been cursed.
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If you are still here in a month, there
is no way out except one that is death.
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This was written by the one who gave up the fight
but it wasn\'t out of weakness or cowardness.
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[music]
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It still feels awful just being here.
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Seeing this again makes me wonder how I made it
as far as I have. How come I wasn\'t lost forever?
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Mind the steps.
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In the cellar, crucial documents about
the time Árpad and his six siblings
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were taken into care and addresses.
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These are original documents. The father had been
the only bread winner (inaudible) in the family
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and he was serving a prison sentence. That\'s why
my mother couldn\'t support the children anymore.
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Domestic environment, cleanliness
and personal hygiene
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in the family is unsatisfactory. The parents like to
drink. They discipline their children by beating them.
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Next stop on his journey is the
orphanage on Lake Balaton,
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where Árpad spent most of his childhood.
The majority of the kids there were Roma.
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But in the society that long been hostile
towards the Roma, they were given little help
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to understand their heritage.
In the orphanage, being Roma
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had no positive implications for us.
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But some of the kids were
visited by their parents
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and they brought smells and flavours that were
strange to me and even a little bit frightening.
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But there was also something exotic
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and exciting about them.
The smell\'s an open fire,
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the smell of freedom. But to be honest, mixing
with the magical creatures that attracted me
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there was also the smell of sweat, the
smell of alcohol, the smell of poverty,
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lots of things that were unappealing.
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Being called as Gypsy
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is still a pejorative
prejudice thing in Hungary.
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Even thinking about the
faces, I get a lot of,
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\"You broke out, you roll
us up, you are umm…
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you are different, you are
better than the rest of them.\"
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It all suggests that if you
need to climb that much,
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just to get to the level of everyone else, you must
have had to start something really, really low
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in a very bad place. But
as an artist and a person
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I think I owe it to myself,
not to accept that you…
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[sil.]
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This really has been raised to the ground.
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The orphanage is gone and developers have bought the land.
Hard to imagine, there was once hundreds of children here.
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It feels really strange to find this
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instead of my past. But
this… this place is a…
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is aperfect metaphor for me, a
vast emptiness, a great void.
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That\'s exactly how I feel about
my childhood. The few of the kids
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I used to know here have committed suicide
since many lost their way, many failed.
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Back then, some teachers kept
cursing our bloody Gypsy parents.
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I definitely thought of my
origins as a kind of stigma.
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I knew I couldn\'t do anything about it
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but should I have to apologize
for it all the time?
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[non-English narration]
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And I think I wasn\'t the only one who a bit ambivalent about
this, I wasn\'t the only one that to feel a little bit ashamed.
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Árpad Bogdán how have you grown.
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Still unsure whether to find his family,
Árpad seeks advice from his former teachers.
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They\'re happy to see their star pupil but
their perception of the Roma hasn\'t changed.
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I knew you would have double
trouble when you got out.
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Firstly, that you\'re from an orphanage
and second, that you\'re a Gypsy.
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Dealing with only one of those would be more
than enough but both. We we\'re so unprepared
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you, you might as well have given us
a cyanide pill and said good bye.
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Now tell me, since you seem to be so upset
about something, what did you miss?
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I should have been taught how to
deal with now having any parents.
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Why didn\'t I have parents?
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I should have been taught about
what it means to be a Gypsy.
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Whenever I see a Gypsy in the street,
I get shivers down my spine.
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But when I went to the orphanage,
I was clean, relatively healthy,
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well bread, well fed kids,
Gypsy kids but I felt
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no hostility towards them.
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What would have become of him without the orphanage?
I thought he was lucky not to have parents.
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What would have become of him?
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Nothing. Okay, they all miss their
family but what kind of family?
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They would\'ve needed good families, not to see
their father beat the mother all the time,
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or to see their sisters being sent out on the
streets. Because that (inaudible) was life.
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[non-English narration]
00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.999
Should I try to find my parents now? You
certainly, you shouldn\'t expect much
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if you do. You might find
horrific circumstances.
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You mustn\'t be horrified. I might try to
find them if I was you but without emotions.
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Árpad has told that his family
no longer live in the village
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where he was born. But he wants to meet the
Mayor and find out if anyone remembers them.
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I know there is no last Bogdán
00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.999
living in this village. Yes, there is.
00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:19.999
He\'s here, I know his
ex-wife, his current partner,
00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.999
even his kids. How old is this man?
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Around 35 I think. No news
of his father, Laslo.
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But he has brother with the same name.
Have you not met him in a while?
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Never. What do you know of your mother? I
don\'t know about anything about anyone.
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Not even whether she\'s alive? No.
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[non-English narration]
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It\'s all coming back to me
now, I\'m sure I can find Laslo
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and set up a meeting.
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He\'ll be happy to see you.
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I\'m not sure it\'s a good idea.
00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.999
In local archives, some
disturbing information.
00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.999
The mother has been
obstructing the authorities
00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.999
by fleeing with three of her
children to an unidentified location
00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:29.999
on May 28th 1979. One child
by the name of Árpad bogdán,
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born on 13th June 1976 was left behind,
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locked in the store room. The
mother has not visited him since.
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The child was eventually
fed by then neighbors.
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That\'s specific,
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very specific. So
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my mother ran off with three kids
and left him, this one, me behind.
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[sil.]
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I don\'t know.
00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:19.999
This is tough. I think well,
00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.999
I, I certainly don\'t
remember being locked up.
00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:29.999
[sil.]
00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.999
I don\'t know, it\'s too much to take in.
00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.999
[sil.]
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This was obviously a family
in process of falling apart
00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:49.999
with a lots of sacrifice,
00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.999
lots of thoughtlessness, a
lot of irresponsibility.
00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.999
[sil.]
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I want to go home.
00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:13.000
[music]
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Let\'s get one thing clear. I don\'t
have any doubts about this.
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I refuse to see my parents. I don\'t
care if our old house is here
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or if uh… anything, anyone else is here.
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I will not subject myself to this. I\'m
interested in the face the documents.
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But to meet family or even to risk
running into them, no thanks!
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This was all over 30 years ago
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
and it certainly would not benefit either
them or me to tear it all open again.
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[music]
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Back home in Budapest, Árpad is
trying to cope on what he\'s found
00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.999
and he\'s expecting a call from Laslo, his new
found brother. He\'s picked up word of his visit.
00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.999
[music]
00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.999
Hello, do you manage to find her?
00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.999
Where is she now? I mean,
00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.999
uh… our mother. She\'s dead?
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
Mm-hmm.
00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.999
[music]
00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.999
It seems my father is the only parent left.
I can still ask about what happened…
00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.999
and I\'ve decided now that
I do want to ask him.
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.999
[music]
00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.999
In Budapest\'s prosperous Rose hill. Árpad
has come to see his former guardian.
00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.999
Sociologist, Catalyn Forai.
She met Árpad when he was 13
00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.999
and she\'s played a key role in his life
ever since. I worried it\'ll shake you up.
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
I\'m not, I\'m not sure. It\'s not
like I\'m meeting strangers
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who will still be strangers but
we might get closed one day.
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These people are my family,
my brother, my father.
00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:59.999
You want to know if you should love them? Well, that
too. You\'ll see, loving relatives is not compulsory.
00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.999
I guess not. Love isn\'t compulsory.
00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
Oh, garlic. Why would you want
garlic for this? It\'s a must.
00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.999
To be honest, I\'m all worried
about my father getting
00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
into some apologetic rant. So what?
I\'d worry more about what comes next.
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
Yeah, what\'s next? Well, whether you will see
him again, whether he will want to come visit,
00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
moving with you, or ask you for money.
00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
I guess, if he had to just
expectations that would be.
00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.999
What? Don\'t want that. Back in the village,
00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.999
Árpad meets his brother
for the first time. Hi.
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
Let me introduce you to each other.
The great encounter.
00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
I thought he\'d look like dad\'s brother.
This is my son. That\'s your uncle.
00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
I\'m Gabble. Hi, Árpad. Why
can\'t we see where you live?
00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
Because it\'s not mine.
00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
And what is yours around here? Nothing.
00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
Except your kids. Yes, my kids.
Laslo was already seven
00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
when he was taken into care. He\'s been back in touch with
the family for years. In the local community center,
00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
he fills in Árpad all the details.
00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
I was wondering why Laslo senior,
our father was in prison?
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
Well, that doesn\'t take a genius
to figure that out. Tell me.
00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
Most of the time it was a fighting.
Was he trouble maker,
00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
bad tempered, picks fight
all the time? Yeah.
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
Do you know him personally? Sure, I do.
Is he still like that? No, not any more.
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
He\'s 60 years old now.
Look, my dad is my dad.
00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
I don\'t want to speak I\'ll of him.
And my mother is my mother
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
so I can\'t think of anything nice
to say and I don\'t wanna be nasty.
00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
I\'ll wait for you here, okay?
Laslo has vowed
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
never to visit his mother\'s grave. So
his son, Gabble takes Árpad to see it.
00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
Were you here when she was buried?
00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
I was still little but I really
love my Granny and she loved me.
00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:33.000
[sil.]
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
Árpad and Laslo\'s father
lives in the next village.
00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
He has a new young wife and 40 dogs.
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
He doesn\'t such much of any of his nine children. But
he doesn\'t seem to mind getting a surprise visit.
00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
Which one are you? I\'m Árpad.
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
[sil.]
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
How time flies. Yes, it does.
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
All right, it\'s been a while.
00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
Is 29 years a while?
That\'s how long it\'s been.
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
Don\'t have a flash. Yes, indeed.
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
Shame, I had no idea where you were.
00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
Okay, I know that\'s no excuse.
Not that you tend to visit,
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
but it was down to me too. I
could\'ve found you I had tried.
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
We could\'ve met sooner.
00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
I don\'t fell apart when
I was put in prison.
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
Your mother went to town,
shacked up with someone.
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
I found about this and I handed
in the divorce papers for myself.
00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
Okay, I wasn\'t faulted,
00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
can\'t told be one. I made mistakes and
your mother had made mistakes too.
00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
[non-English narration]
00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
Had I stayed at home not been in prison,
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
you would\'ve stayed as well.
00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
How long were you in that prison in
Sopron Kohida? Long time, six years
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
and that one alone. It\'s six years?
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
What, what did you do to get six years?
00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
I had a mean punch.
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
Maybe, you shouldn\'t have shown
off in these pufs (inaudible).
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
I always save that to be accompanied
00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
by a prison guard than a priest. On your
way to the cemetery, isn\'t that right?
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
That was at stake.
00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
So you came back from prison and found
that the family had fallen apart?
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
Well, what\'s happened is happened.
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
[sil.]
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
At least you came to find me.
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
I might not have much time left anyway.
As for the past,
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
let\'s pull a veil over it. We
should look to the future from now.
00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
We should stay in touch.
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
I\'m glad I found out about you.
00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
[sil.]
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
Back in Budapest,
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
Árpad is getting on route preparations for
his next film and considering everything
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
he\'s learned about his past. All kinds
of stereo types around the roper.
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
Árpad may just have got
rid of some of his own.
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
I expected a lot worse when I
went to meet these people,
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
my… my brother and my father. I
was worried about finding umm…
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
much more deviant, marginalized creatures.
00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
They ended up surprisingly
and in a way that lives
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
are more rooted than mine is.
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
[non-English narration]
00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
They have uh… families, they have
loved ones and they have a lot more
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
umm… stability than I can
even imagine for myself.
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
Concepts like, like brother,
00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
father, family they, they did not
start meaning something overnight.
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
Like my brother said, it was like
talking to complete stranger.
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
[non-English narration]
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
I\'ve ended up with few new people
in my life and umm… I have no idea
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
what role they will play from now on.
00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
Post communist Hungary
and its Roma minority
00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
still need time to come to terms to
each other and so do Árpad and his dad.
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
But at least now they have the
opportunity if they want to take it.
00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
I looked my father, into his eyes
00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
and I suddenly felt myself forgiving him
00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
and let him go along with all the
bad things I used to blame him for
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
and after that I could see him for
what he is and I could listen to him.
00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
Whether I see my father again?
00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
[music]
00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
Well,
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
Maybe I will but definitely not on my own.
00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
I will have to take someone with
me, someone from my own life,
00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
someone who can give me
a sense of security.
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
I think I would need that to hold on to.
I would need to be reminded that,
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
okay, that is where I\'m
from and he\'s my father.
00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
But I do have a very different
life now and very different world.
00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:58.000
[music]