Stalin City Cantata

An investigation alongside socialist ideology and its communist architects showing up the impact on today's young generations.

In recent years, a downright onslaught on archives has taken place in Eastern Europe and in particular in Hungary. Nothing is as important as the own past, the complex history of a state that wanted to combine intellectualism with art, culture and politics.

In this respect, Sztalinvaros (Stalin City), founded in 1951 and re-named to Danube City ten years later, was a special place as it was the most privileged city for realizing the dream of the New Humankind back in the notorious 1950s.

The film portrays the city guided by a cantata, from the musical perspective of the composer Peter Horvath, whose parents were thoroughly communist, nevertheless, amateur party members: The father, a flutist of the symphony orchestra, the mother, a woman of letters with a tendency to pedagogy, the son, curious but discreet.

It is very beautiful how the film repeatedly presents archive film and audio material in between the protagonists' narratives. This gives Stalin City and Hungary a kind of idyllic everyday image that contrasts the increasingly close-knit story that unfolds.

Team Partner

Gabriel Szollosy, director

Producer / Production Details

Librecine
Supported by Hungarian Cultural Ministry, Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation, Hungarian Cultural Fund, Hungarian Public Television