Logline: 11 Hungarian lesbians’ lives over the Iron Curtain

Short synopsis:
Hungarian women between 45 and 70 years of age talk about „the secret years“ : Their lives as lesbians under Communism and ever since. Stories about the repression of the 1960s and 1970s, the emerging subculture and alternative scene of the 1980s; the political movements for minority rights of the 1990s, up to the present, where democratic values are being threatened by nationalist violence.

Long synopsis

Subject
Many Hungarians still think that before 1989 no Gay and Lesbian life in Hungary existed, as socialist society forced Lesbians and Gays into a life of secrecy and invisibility.
Hungarian society is still very hostile towards minorities and “difference”; in public discourse, someone who is recognizably “different” cannot speak for or represent the whole of society. However, we are convinced that an authentic reflection of any given political and social system can be found by looking at that system’s marginalized groups.
Our documentary surveys the generations of lesbians in Hungary that lived, and continue to live, a closeted existence since the 1960s (with few acquaintances and in limited company), and those generations that – thanks to freedoms afforded by the 1989 collapse of Communism – have increasingly more open and accepted lives. Their life stories will acquaint the audience with both the former system’s crippling methods of asserting power over the individual and communities, and with the freedom accompanying the post-communist transition. What had been a taboo topic prior to 1989 gradually has entered into political discourse; but in recent years, visibility brings on new challenges too.
No Hungarian documentary has yet dealt with this subject matter. This film will compensate for a blind spot not only in the public’s awareness of the former Communist system, but will also strengthen the identity of the lesbian community and other minorities by extension.

“Secret years” in the context of the political situation in Hungary 2009:
For over 14 years, Budapest Gay Pride and Festival was a peaceful cultural event, attracting LGBT * and supportive straight visitors. It created a space for information exchange, dialogue and celebration. In 2008, grand scale ultra right-wing attacks gave the LGBT community and broader Hungarian society reason for concern.
A nationalist ideology is becoming increasingly promoted among the general population of Hungary, according to which homosexuality is still an abomination and disease, genuinely foreign to the Hungarian people – a Western import, violently imposed on the country after 1989 as a by-product of a free-market economy. LGBT visibility is (again) perceived as a provoking the majority, and freedom of opinion is monopolized by those expressing this narrow minded nationalist opinion, resulting in violence and the throwing of eggs (many rotten or filled with acid), stones and molotov cocktails during Budapest Pride events. Not everyone in Hungary shares these views, but they are becoming increasingly promoted again.

We are convinced in times like these, that our project fills an essential gap not only for our community, but also a blank spot in the memory of Hungarian and international society.