Földszint (Ground Floor) grew out of the idea of a homeowners’ meeting, but ultimately it is about how an entire social and political system functions, about apathy, awakening, and the possibility of change, director Gábor Reisz said in an interview with MTI about his new film, which will be released in Hungarian cinemas on October 1.
“I had the feeling that we live in a world that is in a terrible state:
The climate crisis and the anxiety resulting from it shaped my everyday life, and all of this was closely connected to the political situation.”
This statement comes neither from Greta Thunberg nor from some NGO activist in Germany being funded by government money, but from a Hungarian. Gábor Reisz, born in 1980, is one of Hungary’s most successful directors. He likes to compare himself to Woody Allen and indeed has a kind of irony that is regarded in so-called educated circles as “nuanced.” Following the Hungarian premiere of his latest film (Földszint – Ground Floor), he was interviewed by the Hungarian news agency, which very clearly reflects the country’s new political direction. In 2023, he achieved a major success with Explanation for Everything, which is particularly compelling because the political views of its protagonists are not put on display, and the filmmaker’s own corresponding perspective remains—pleasantly for viewers—imperceptible.
The director’s simplistic near-confession must irritate anyone who likes Reisz for his ideological carefree attitude. A few days ago, he gave a lengthy interview to Emilia Krug’s podcast, where the “old” (?), still self-critical Gábor Reisz emerged. Ground Floor, which was the subject of the conversation, has been celebrated by pro-government media following its success in Venice as a cinematic harbinger of “regime change.”
The film is described as a satire intended to symbolize awakening from political apathy. The screenplay presents an equally simplistic parable in which the homeowners’ association of an apartment building stands for Hungarian society, while the main protagonist’s struggle against a hygienic problem is unmistakably intended to represent a kind of political awakening story. According to the director, one of the film’s central ideas is:
What happens when apathy disappears and a passive person suddenly awakens and sparks an “in-house revolution”?
In the interview, Reisz says that his team did not anticipate political change; everyone had come to terms with the “system.”
The podcast discussion also touches on the dilemma surrounding the film’s pessimistic ending. After TISZA’s election victory, they decided on a more optimistic conclusion because they could not escape the supposedly widespread euphoria.
Here we see the tunnel vision of the left-liberal creative haute volée, part of the capital’s “bubble,” which has always regarded the Hungarian countryside as something alien. Even in the larger cities, one could not observe anything resembling the frenzy of joy seen in Budapest after the election results were announced. Drivers instead reported increased nervousness in traffic. Outside the capital there were no prolonged honking celebrations and no alcohol-fueled chanting by TISZA supporters. The narrative of a breakthrough, or even of a “political turning point,” is an entirely Budapest phenomenon—a ridiculous product of the oversized head of a small country that has been exported to the provinces with limited success.
Artistic talent and political judgment rarely go hand in hand—this observation has by now become a commonplace, just as it is commonplace that political talent does not require a sense of aesthetics. The separation of throne and altar is no longer questioned in a modern democracy. The Left, for instance, becomes outraged by any statement made by a clergyman, even when it concerns only the ethical principles of politics. Artists, by contrast, are treated as political oracles, and great weight is attached to their often uninformed statements, even though the social perceptions of creative people can be generalized only to a very limited extent, if at all. Neither Gábor Reisz nor László Krasznahorkai, the Hungarian Nobel Prize-winning author, nor anyone else can claim to be the “moral conscience” of the nation.
Gábor Reisz is—consciously or unconsciously—making himself the mouthpiece of a demagoguery intended to hold together the hybrid composition of TISZA supporters.
His film, which will be shown in Hungarian cinemas from October 1, is of course not a propagandistic production from Péter Magyar’s camp like Tavaszi szél – az ébredés (Spring Wind – The Awakening). It will be interesting to see how Ground Floor is received by Hungarian audiences, and whether its politicized message strikes a chord with a society that is slowly awakening from the “awakening,” now that “the magic inherent in each beginning” (Hermann Hesse) has evaporated.
As for the filmmaker, one can only hope that he listens to his inner voice. In the podcast mentioned above, he expresses his concern that the winners of the moment might act according to the motto, “Now it is OUR turn.” Unfortunately, there are enough signs that the TISZA government intends to level Hungary’s cultural sphere with a steamroller in accordance with its left-liberal ideology: the disputes surrounding the House of Terror, the halt to construction work at the Buda Castle, the dismissal of the head of the M5 cultural television channel, and the termination of the popular cultural and travel documentary series Hazajáró (The Homecomer) are just some examples of the direction Péter Magyar and his allies do—or do not—intend to take in the country’s cultural policy.
Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Illyés Tibor
The post The Awakening from Apathy, or the Hungarian “In-House Revolution” appeared first on Hungary Today.
The Awakening from Apathy, or the Hungarian “In-House Revolution” 2026
IUSTITIA.BG – Investigations 2009-2026 2026-09-21 09:18:27
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