film

Judgment in Hungary

Bertha Journalism

Director

Eszter Hajdu

 

Production support

Impact campaign support

Went to Good Pitch

 

Judgment in Hungary is a court-room drama about the trial of the four-member team of serial killers, who during the course of one year killed several Roma people, among them 5 -year-old child, they were charged of serial killing with racial motivation. The film is taking place in a small and claustrophobic court room in Budapest, Hungary. The trial began March 2011 of four suspected perpetrators charged by the Hungarian state, and ended 6th of August, 2013. They were charged of serial killings with racial motivation.

LONG SYNOPSIS

Hungary was the site of serial murders by a criminal gang. Over the course of one year, the murderers killed Roma children and adults. Their aim was to victimize the Roma. The judicial hearings on this unprecedented and bloody series of murders started March, 2011 in Budapest, and ended at the 6th of August, 2013. Four men were accused by the state of committing the murderings with racist motivation. (63 gunshots, 11 Molotov-cocktails, 6 Roma killed, children among the victims, serious injuries) The film traces the fate of three Roma families who trust the judicial system to give them closure. They believe that the murderers - who killed their child, their grandchild, their spouse, their sibling - will be punished. They trust that the Hungarian state will protect them. Will these families achieve what they seek? What will be the outcome of the marathon, year-long trial? Can the Roma trust in the Hungarian justice system? We show the hearings of the 2 and a half years long trial, basically staying in the Court-room, and show some intimate moments of our main characters in their private surrounding.

Outreach Work Supported

Screenings and debates in Hungary around release of the film.