00:34 A One World Broadcasting Trust & Northern Media School Production {title on black}
00:37 In Association with Norton College Skills For Business {title and logos on black}
01:12 Homeland {title on black}
02:01 How long has this Hungarian community lived here?
02:04 Oh, it’s always been here.
02:07 Our village is about 730 years old
02:10 and it’s always been Hungarian.
02:13 The borders here are constantly shifting.
02:16 During my father’s lifetime,
02:18 this was all under Austro-Hungary.
02:19 After WWI came the Treaty of Trianon,
02:24 That was when we were added to Czechoslovakia.
02:27 In 1938 the Hungarians took it all back.
02:33 Then we went to Hungary again.
02:36 After the war we went to the Ukraine
02:39 and then to Slovakia again.
02:42 I mean to Czechoslovakia and then Slovakia.
03:13 “Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it. It is obviously impossible to get around it, jump over it, or simply avoid it.“
Vaclav Havel {titles on black}
03:27 WARNING! State border, entry forbidden.
03:35 Zoltan was here the day before yesterday.
03:40 He came by bike from over there and wanted to talk to you.
03:46 He asked me, “auntie Mary, have you seen uncle Peter?”
03:51 I’ve got to go and can tomatoes now.
03:53 Is the sweetcorn nice?
03:55 Sorry? – Is the sweetcorn nice?
03:57 It is – And the potatoes?
03:59 They’re nice too – Thank God.
04:03 The tomatoes are nice too.
03:05 Good, good.
03:06 Well, I’ve got to go now. Bye!
04:45 Goodbye!
04:52 It was absurd how they divided a single village.
04:56 I don’t know why they did it.
05:03 It was hermetically closed off.
05:10 We knew we had family over there,
05:12 but the families have nearly grown up,
05:15 so we don’t know all of the youngsters.
05:25 Shall I say it in Slovak or Hungarian?
05:28 - In Hungarian!
05:32 I work with this tool,
05:35 and with those.
05:39 Here’s another that I use.
05:46 Then I get the hammer.
05:50 Then I take another one.
05:53 Sometimes I use this, it depends what I need to do.
05:56 These are the things I use.
06:05 It’s a mess! A mess! I just work, I don’t tidy up.
06:13 Now I’m 80 and I haven’t stopped working since I was 15.
06:25 We had 5 hectares up to that little forest.
06:30 Where that little wood is.
06:34 In this part and over there.
06:38 5 hectares of mine are over there.
06:47 The mayor on the other side said: “Here’s the border.“
06:55 They came here and kicked the ground.
06:59 Very little land remained on this side of the border.
07:04 Some farmers were hardly left with one square metre.
07:09 The mayor over there got it, and he did business for 2 or 3 years.
07:15 He had access to as much land as he needed.
07:32 Look at the way she’s dressed!
07:35 Can’t we?
07:36 No, I’d rather you didn’t. I’m not dressed for it!
07:39 It’s quite enough for you to film me.
07:43 I look like a lady minister, don’t I?
07:50 I’m going to see my sister.
07:53 She married a Hungarian in Palagykomoroc.
07:59 Then the Russian border went up and was closed off.
08:03 Nobody could go over there for years and years.
08:07 We couldn’t go to Palagykomoroc.
08:12 She didn’t have anybody there.
08:15 She had no child, no family, and we couldn’t go there.
08:21 She didn’t come to my wedding because the border was closed.
08:28 We didn’t see each other for ten years
08:30 because they wouldn’t let us across.
08:33 If I didn’t have to go to Presov I’d visit her every week.
08:39 But…
09:12 In 1944 the Russians came.
09:18 The following year they put the border here.
09:27 This is our kitchen garden.
09:59 Now we’re in the zone.
10:14 Are they Hungarian?
10:16 No, they’re Ukrainian.
10:19 From up to one thousand kilometres away from here.
10:28 Hi, how are you?
10:31 Fine.
10:34 Where are you from?
10:36 The Carpathians.
10:38 Far away?
10:40 The Irshavski region.
10:42 How far’s that? I don’t know it.
10:45 It’s 800 km away.
10:53 They took 40 people from here to a Russian labour camp
10:57 Between the ages of 18 and 45.
11:01 To something called “little labour” in Russian.
11:04 10 to 15 thousand people in one camp.
11:09 There was a barbed wire fence all around,
11:14 guarded by Russians on every corner.
11:20 If anyone tried to go through the fence,
11:23 they were immediately shot down.
11:25 Were only Hungarians taken to little labour?
11:29 Yes, only Hungarians.
11:32 Not one person was taken from the neighbouring Slovak villages.
11:39 Was it meant as punishment?
11:42 Yes, for being in the war.
11:46 But they weren’t soldiers and had nothing to do with politics.
11:51 It was simply for being Hungarian.
12:08 I was 19.
12:12 Half the people didn’t return, they died. – Half died.
12:15 There were too many people and not enough room.
12:19 There were no buildings to sleep in.
12:23 We had to stand outside in the yard.
12:40 When did you come home?
12:52 2 years later. I came back in 1946.
12:56 I came home on 20th December. - It was a year after the war ended.
13:02 “There is no religion in which everyday life is not considered a prison: there is no philosophy or ideology that does think that we live in alienation“
Eugene Ionesco {titles on black}
14:03 Why they’ve imposed such expensive visas on us, I don’t know.
14:09 The politicians could answer that one.
14:14 We have to go and apply in Presov and pick it up from there a week later.
14:20 How much money would that cost?
14:23 To go to Presov, have it done.
14:25 Wait a week, go back to Presov again.
14:41 Well, I’ve looked everywhere.
14:51 Barbora Nagy.
14:53 The first name and surname
14:55 of the person you are visiting.
14:58 Barbora Nagy.
15:00 The name and address of the person you are visiting.
15:02 The name and address.
15:03 I’m telling you the name!
15:05 Barbora Nagy.
15:07 What’s the name of your sister?
15:09 Barbora Nagy.
15:11 Write it down for me.
15:13 You don’t know how to write it?!
15:16 Well I never!
15:43 When I want to visit my family,
15:47 I have to do a 650km round trip.
15:53 Even though they live a three-minute walk away.
15:56 Three minutes!
16:43 We’ve travelled all over, and the border is just there.
16:50 We’ve gone everywhere - here, there, this way, that way.
16:57 And yet it’s so year.
17:00 This is what the Prime Minister’s trip looked like
17:03 yesterday at the border control department
17:05 which safeguards the protection of the Slovak-Ukrainian border.
17:07 The first stop on the PM’s itinerary was
17:10 the border crossing in Sobrance county
17:13 Vysne Nemecke, which is mainly used by truck drivers
17:15 The PM was greeted by truckers who had been waiting
17:18 to cross the border for 36 hours.
17:33 Hello!
17:35 You don’t even have your head scarf on.
17:39 This is my sister!
17:42 Hello!
17:44 The chicken is here, I haven’t swept it out yet.
17:49 The chicken is here with you?!
17:51 Not with me.
17:55 Here’s the broom. I don’t even know what to do.
17:59 Sweep!
18:01 Ok, I’ll sweep.
18:04 I need to put some ash on the floor.
18:08 There’s a little chicken shit down here.
18:18 Good Lord!
18:24 I’ve found my head scarf.
18:38 I don’t want to say the bad things.
18:41 Tell them!
18:43 I just worked in the collective farms for 30 years.
18:50 I worked like a machine, like a machine!
18:57 What should I tell you? The rest of my life?
19:03 Don’t even try to ask about it, because it wasn’t good.
19:07 My husband hit me.
19:10 What was good about that?
19:14 I just worked.
19:17 I tried to adjust to him, but it was impossible.
19:23 I wanted everything to be good.
19:28 There were things which shouldn’t have happened, but did.
19:34 We were different.
19:39 Where would you rather live?
19:43 In Hungary? In Slovakia?
19:47 Nowhere, just here.
19:50 But next to you.
19:53 Everyone around here has family over there.
19:56 It used to be one country after all.
19:59 Families are scattered. Not only from our village,
20:02 but also from the other villages.
21:21 You don’t even know what Communism was.
21:24 I’ve just heard about it.
21:26 It was insane.
21:27 Can you talk about it?
21:29 What can I say?
21:31 When I see something about it on TV now,
21:33 I find it quite funny.
21:36 But it didn’t make me laugh back then.
21:40 Speak. We couldn’t speak.
21:44 And you know, when you can’t even speak,
21:46 what can you do?
22:07 The gently rolling countryside,
22:10 the blossoming orchards of friendship,
22:13 a gaily decorated parade ground at the Czechoslovak-Soviet border...
22:18 a joyful atmosphere, chanting, giving thanks to our liberators,
22:23 long-lasting applause...
22:27 …the signing of a treaty of friendship and cooperation…
22:30 between the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia…
22:35 …sincere thanks to the heroic Soviet people…
23:35 Fear...
23:37 It’s unbelievable what that is.
23:53 HELLO
23:54 ATTENTION:
23:56 WE WANT TO INFORM THE CITIZENS OF OUR COMMUNITY
23:59 THAT BROILER CHICKENS ARE ON SALE
24:04 FOR 40 CROWNS A KILO
24:09 IN FRONT OF THE LOCAL RESTAURANT,
24:13 11-WEEK OLD LAYING-HEN CHICKS
24:17 FOR 90 CROWNS A PIECE
24:23 AND 11-WEEK OLD ROOSTERS FOR 70 CROWNS
24:27 I REPEAT:
24:25 WE WANT TO INFORM THE CITIZENS OF OUR COMMUNITY
24:29 THAT BROILER CHICKENS ARE ON SALE
24:35 FOR 40 CROWNS A KILO
25:01 After 1946-47, Hungarians and Germans were “guilty“.
25:17 Czechoslovakia started to expel both Germans and Hungarians.
25:23 About 70,000 Hungarians were expelled.
25:41 Everyone got a white document saying we were all going to live in Hungary.
25:48 And from there they sent Slovaks to live here.
25:51 An exchange! - They exchanged them.
25:58 If a villager signed a document declaring they were of Slovak nationality,
26:04 that person wasn’t then expelled.
26:10 It was called „Re-Slovakisation“.
26:15 It was especially ridiculous if the person was born here
26:19 and all their ancestors were from here.
26:23 That was the dirty politics of the totalitarian regime.
26:30 Where’s your bike?
26:31 My room mate took it.
26:33 He needed it.
26:34 He should have it if he can’t even buy a bike.
26:38 When my husband died I had three bikes.
26:43 I needed a bike, but he didn’t give it back.
26:47 He said he needed it more than I did.
26:51 If he needs it that much, God should help him.
26:54 And God does help him. He needed the bike.
27:00 Did he really need the bike?
27:01 He did.
27:03 And he can fuck off!
27:06 Don’t say that sister, they’re filming it.
27:10 There’s nothing wrong with it.
27:11 No?!
27:12 Oh, I can’t speak anymore.
27:24 I don’t have that much time, I don’t have time.
27:29 I have to feed the ducks.
27:32 It’s always the ducks, the chickens and again the ducks!
27:38 Poor chicken!
27:40 The magpie took one away.
27:45 He killed the chicken, he killed it!
27:49 Speak Hungarian!
27:53 That’s the problem, you’re Hungarian!
27:56 That’s your mistake.
28:05 What shall we do with the duck?
28:09 I’m going to pluck that duck.
28:47 We couldn’t even shout or come near the border.
28:54 I lived just there but I couldn’t come up here.
28:57 I’d get a 100 crown fine on the spot.
29:02 When people are forcibly denied contact with each other,
29:09 they think up all kinds of things.
29:13 People used to work in the fields near the border.
29:19 A Russian would come up if they got too near on both sides.
29:27 Those people would then start to sing.
29:30 They’d sing their messages to each other.
30:06 One of our dogs was shot.
30:10 He used to go over there too.
30:13 One day we heard a shot.
30:15 The dog made it to the other side
30:16 but then he died.
30:30 There were wires with missiles mounted on them.
30:34 If something touched the wire, the missile would fire into the air.
30:38 But it was usually just rabbits that were shot into the air.
30:43 In the beginning there was barbed wire in knots
30:51 A horse once came by and got caught up in it.
30:54 It got tangled up and died.
32:13 “Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together“
Eugene Ionesco {titles on black}
32:22 How many people lived around that courtyard?
32:29 Pista Zelei lived there.
32:32 Feri.
32:34 Uncle Kontra, Istvan Szelei, our father…
32:41 And Feri lived there.
32:44 Then nobody else but Feri.
32:47 And there were 2 others in another house.
32:52 They lived in a main house, half a house.
32:59 Oh leave me alone.
33:02 It’s not good to talk about this.
33:06 You have to forget it, everybody’s died.
33:12 It’s not good to think about that.
33:14 Uncle Gyuri, uncle Feri, they lived together in one house too.
33:17 They had half the house each.
33:20 A room with a kitchen. That’s all they had.
33:23 It was good for them.
33:25 It was good.
33:27 See? See, it was good.
33:32 It was good as long as you were you.
33:36 You could stand it, it was good.
33:39 After my husband died, yes, it was good.
33:42 Yeah, I could stand it, yeah, it was good.
33:47 I had everything. I had money too.
33:52 I had 2 pigs and a cow; everything!
33:57 So there’s no reason for me to invite you to Slovakia?
34:00 No reason.
34:01 You won’t go and that’s it?
34:02 I won’t go.
34:05 I don’t have any problems now either.
34:07 You won’t go.
34:08 I won’t go.
34:10 That’s it. Taken care of.
34:16 We’ll try and get invited to dinner!
34:20 To the other side?
34:22 They’re not there anymore.
34:24 But I can still hear voices.
34:26 No, the wife got dressed up.
34:28 She put on a red dress and they went away.
34:33 Look at the weeds on the other side.
34:37 Well, he died. Nobody’s looking after it.
34:41 His kids died.
34:44 Everybody died.
34:46 Peter died too.
34:49 When Peter was in Mukacevo he died.
34:52 There’s nobody there, nobody.
35:08 You can come across now! – No we can’t, not just like that!
35:14 I’d come across right now, if I could.
35:19 A person could just walk across and sit down.
35:24 We don’t know anybody over there anymore, except for you.
35:28 I used to know everybody from over there, I knew your mother and father.
35:37 Does he speak Hungarian?
35:40 Course he does!
35:41 He doesn’t say anything to us.
35:46 If he’s not one of us why should he say anything to us.
35:50 What? If he’s not one of us why should he talk to us.
35:53 Oh, OK!
36.05 We were compelled to introduce stricter controls.
36:08 That means the simplified checks have been stopped.
36:11 All travellers will undergo more stringent checks.
36:14 - I assume this will affect all border crossings.
36.17 These measures will be introduced throughout Slovakia.
36.20 For the Ukraine, border checks will be in no way simplified.
36:24 Classic border controls will continue there.
36:30 Little bird, little bird, twittery little bird.
36:42 Take my letter back to my home country.
36:59 If they ask you who sent it,
37:11 Tell them, the one who is dying
37:22 from a heartache
37:33 I’m holding myself up.
37:34 Sit up straight you.
37:38 Sit up straight
37:41 Oh, really!
37:46 Don’t turn that way, turn this way!
37:52 I’m not saying anything to her anymore!
37:55 Oh… God.
37:59 They’re recording what you’re saying now too.
38:02 Everything.
38:23 Just put yourself in my place.
38:27 Alright, I’ll put myself in your place.
38:30 I don’t need it.
38:31 You’re telling me to sell it, and I’m telling you not to sell it.
38:34 So you sit in the house then!
38:39 That would be much better for me.
38:42 OK, so I’ll sit in it.
38:46 That’s not necessary.
38:47 So you’ve got to sell everything. What good are these things to you?
38:53 What things? Will I look at the empty walls?
38:57 Is that why I worked all my life? I need somewhere to lie down at least.
39:02 Hang on. When the time comes, then to whom are you going to leave it all to?
39:08 I’ll leave it. – To whom?
39:10 To whomever lives in it.
39:13 To the Russians for nothing?
39:15 The Russians for nothing.
39:16 For free?
39:17 For free.
39:18 Oh my God!
41:27 I should lock up.
41:43 I don’t even need to do it with a key.
41:47 Everything’s closed now.
41:55 Oh, I left something outside.
42:00 Sorry!
43:08 There between those two pylons is a little white pylon.
43:14 That marks the border.
43:16 What’s the fence for?
43:18 They put that there. But we wouldn’t cross over there anyway.
43:24 They’re more likely to try and get across.
43:28 A lot of people are crossing the border from over there.
43:35 It’s completely different looking here from over there than from here to over there.
43:44 Look at the beautiful carvings. What beautiful work!
43:49 They look like roses.
43:52 That’s our village coat of arms.- Coat of arms?
43:59 Yes. Those two turtles, that’s the Szelmenc coat of arms.
44:13 What about the moon and the stars?
44:15 Over there is the sunrise and over here is the sunset.
44:26 Will they be joined together when a border crossing is opened here?
44:31 No, it will be when the village is reunited.
44:38 Then they’ll give their half back to us, but theirs will be ugly by then!
44:42 It won’t be ugly!
44:44 Theirs isn’t as nicely painted as ours. It’s only been varnished once!
44:48 It will still look nice even after 50 years.
44:52 This one will, but… - And the one on the other side too!
44:55 It’s made of oak.
45:01 The light’s on but it doesn’t look like they’re working.
45:51 “People who live in the post-totalitarian system know only too well that the question of whether or not one or several political parties are in power, and how these parties define and label themselves, is of far less importance than then question of whether or not it is possible to live like a human being.“
Vaclav Havel {titles on black}
47:01 Ever since the 1989 political change,
47:04 companies started to be privatised, usually by people who weren’t from here.
47:12 There is high unemployment.
47:15 Young people are leaving for the Czech Republic and elsewhere for work.
47:24 Everyone has to live but there’s nothing to live off here.
47:28 Those two factories aren’t enough.
47:33 They are being privatised now so there will be even less people employed there.
47:37 That’s life.
47:43 Well, what can we do?
47:45 Try to understand...
47:47 What can we do about politics?
47:49 We can’t do anything.
48:47 Oh, what will happen to me here?
49:02 I have to know what will happen to me.
49:04 Everybody else knows.
49:06 Nobody needs me because I’m old.
49:09 They didn’t need me when I was young either.
49:48 Oh my God!
49:50 Where should I go?
49:53 Oh, I can’t stand it.
49:55 I can’t stand the garden anymore.
50:10 My sweater is hanging up there.
50:16 Not that one, the sweater. - This one?
50:19 That one! That one!
50:22 Hang on. I’m just tying this on.
50:28 Are you looking forward to going home?
50:31 Home.
50:32 Are you looking forward to it?
50:33 Of course I am!
50:36 Wouldn’t live here.
50:47 Oh, auntie Barbora, don’t cry!
50:49 I’ve got something to cry for though.
50:58 You don’t need to cry, everything will be fine.
51:01 I’ll be back on Monday.
51:03 When?
51:04 Monday
51:05 I’ll come back on Monday.
51:08 You come and you go!
51:12 I’m sorry.
51:17 I’m not angry with her.
51:21 We had an argument this morning. She told me I didn’t have anything.
51:27 Oh, she just said it. She didn’t mean it.
51:31 I don’t even know how to decide. I don’t even want to know.
51:35 It makes my heart ache.
51:43 I must go away, even if it rains.
51:54 Even if it’s hard to go, hard to leave you alone.
52:05 Oh Lord, oh I have to forget your words comforting me.
52:25 If you go away, you will leave sorrow in my heart.
52:34 Grief, like a shallow grave, I will die for you my love.
53:34 “As soon as man began considering himself the source of the highest meaning in the world and the measure of everything, the world began to lose its human dimension, and man began to lose control of it.“
Vaclav Havel {titles on black}
54:13 Even since 1989 nothing’s changed.
54:16 Here at the border, nothing’s changed.
54:22 I haven’t gone anywhere and I’m living in my fourth country.
54:24 But it’s still the same house in the same place.
56:57 {Programme end}
00:37 In Association with Norton College Skills For Business {title and logos on black}
01:12 Homeland {title on black}
02:01 How long has this Hungarian community lived here?
02:04 Oh, it’s always been here.
02:07 Our village is about 730 years old
02:10 and it’s always been Hungarian.
02:13 The borders here are constantly shifting.
02:16 During my father’s lifetime,
02:18 this was all under Austro-Hungary.
02:19 After WWI came the Treaty of Trianon,
02:24 That was when we were added to Czechoslovakia.
02:27 In 1938 the Hungarians took it all back.
02:33 Then we went to Hungary again.
02:36 After the war we went to the Ukraine
02:39 and then to Slovakia again.
02:42 I mean to Czechoslovakia and then Slovakia.
03:13 “Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it. It is obviously impossible to get around it, jump over it, or simply avoid it.“
Vaclav Havel {titles on black}
03:27 WARNING! State border, entry forbidden.
03:35 Zoltan was here the day before yesterday.
03:40 He came by bike from over there and wanted to talk to you.
03:46 He asked me, “auntie Mary, have you seen uncle Peter?”
03:51 I’ve got to go and can tomatoes now.
03:53 Is the sweetcorn nice?
03:55 Sorry? – Is the sweetcorn nice?
03:57 It is – And the potatoes?
03:59 They’re nice too – Thank God.
04:03 The tomatoes are nice too.
03:05 Good, good.
03:06 Well, I’ve got to go now. Bye!
04:45 Goodbye!
04:52 It was absurd how they divided a single village.
04:56 I don’t know why they did it.
05:03 It was hermetically closed off.
05:10 We knew we had family over there,
05:12 but the families have nearly grown up,
05:15 so we don’t know all of the youngsters.
05:25 Shall I say it in Slovak or Hungarian?
05:28 - In Hungarian!
05:32 I work with this tool,
05:35 and with those.
05:39 Here’s another that I use.
05:46 Then I get the hammer.
05:50 Then I take another one.
05:53 Sometimes I use this, it depends what I need to do.
05:56 These are the things I use.
06:05 It’s a mess! A mess! I just work, I don’t tidy up.
06:13 Now I’m 80 and I haven’t stopped working since I was 15.
06:25 We had 5 hectares up to that little forest.
06:30 Where that little wood is.
06:34 In this part and over there.
06:38 5 hectares of mine are over there.
06:47 The mayor on the other side said: “Here’s the border.“
06:55 They came here and kicked the ground.
06:59 Very little land remained on this side of the border.
07:04 Some farmers were hardly left with one square metre.
07:09 The mayor over there got it, and he did business for 2 or 3 years.
07:15 He had access to as much land as he needed.
07:32 Look at the way she’s dressed!
07:35 Can’t we?
07:36 No, I’d rather you didn’t. I’m not dressed for it!
07:39 It’s quite enough for you to film me.
07:43 I look like a lady minister, don’t I?
07:50 I’m going to see my sister.
07:53 She married a Hungarian in Palagykomoroc.
07:59 Then the Russian border went up and was closed off.
08:03 Nobody could go over there for years and years.
08:07 We couldn’t go to Palagykomoroc.
08:12 She didn’t have anybody there.
08:15 She had no child, no family, and we couldn’t go there.
08:21 She didn’t come to my wedding because the border was closed.
08:28 We didn’t see each other for ten years
08:30 because they wouldn’t let us across.
08:33 If I didn’t have to go to Presov I’d visit her every week.
08:39 But…
09:12 In 1944 the Russians came.
09:18 The following year they put the border here.
09:27 This is our kitchen garden.
09:59 Now we’re in the zone.
10:14 Are they Hungarian?
10:16 No, they’re Ukrainian.
10:19 From up to one thousand kilometres away from here.
10:28 Hi, how are you?
10:31 Fine.
10:34 Where are you from?
10:36 The Carpathians.
10:38 Far away?
10:40 The Irshavski region.
10:42 How far’s that? I don’t know it.
10:45 It’s 800 km away.
10:53 They took 40 people from here to a Russian labour camp
10:57 Between the ages of 18 and 45.
11:01 To something called “little labour” in Russian.
11:04 10 to 15 thousand people in one camp.
11:09 There was a barbed wire fence all around,
11:14 guarded by Russians on every corner.
11:20 If anyone tried to go through the fence,
11:23 they were immediately shot down.
11:25 Were only Hungarians taken to little labour?
11:29 Yes, only Hungarians.
11:32 Not one person was taken from the neighbouring Slovak villages.
11:39 Was it meant as punishment?
11:42 Yes, for being in the war.
11:46 But they weren’t soldiers and had nothing to do with politics.
11:51 It was simply for being Hungarian.
12:08 I was 19.
12:12 Half the people didn’t return, they died. – Half died.
12:15 There were too many people and not enough room.
12:19 There were no buildings to sleep in.
12:23 We had to stand outside in the yard.
12:40 When did you come home?
12:52 2 years later. I came back in 1946.
12:56 I came home on 20th December. - It was a year after the war ended.
13:02 “There is no religion in which everyday life is not considered a prison: there is no philosophy or ideology that does think that we live in alienation“
Eugene Ionesco {titles on black}
14:03 Why they’ve imposed such expensive visas on us, I don’t know.
14:09 The politicians could answer that one.
14:14 We have to go and apply in Presov and pick it up from there a week later.
14:20 How much money would that cost?
14:23 To go to Presov, have it done.
14:25 Wait a week, go back to Presov again.
14:41 Well, I’ve looked everywhere.
14:51 Barbora Nagy.
14:53 The first name and surname
14:55 of the person you are visiting.
14:58 Barbora Nagy.
15:00 The name and address of the person you are visiting.
15:02 The name and address.
15:03 I’m telling you the name!
15:05 Barbora Nagy.
15:07 What’s the name of your sister?
15:09 Barbora Nagy.
15:11 Write it down for me.
15:13 You don’t know how to write it?!
15:16 Well I never!
15:43 When I want to visit my family,
15:47 I have to do a 650km round trip.
15:53 Even though they live a three-minute walk away.
15:56 Three minutes!
16:43 We’ve travelled all over, and the border is just there.
16:50 We’ve gone everywhere - here, there, this way, that way.
16:57 And yet it’s so year.
17:00 This is what the Prime Minister’s trip looked like
17:03 yesterday at the border control department
17:05 which safeguards the protection of the Slovak-Ukrainian border.
17:07 The first stop on the PM’s itinerary was
17:10 the border crossing in Sobrance county
17:13 Vysne Nemecke, which is mainly used by truck drivers
17:15 The PM was greeted by truckers who had been waiting
17:18 to cross the border for 36 hours.
17:33 Hello!
17:35 You don’t even have your head scarf on.
17:39 This is my sister!
17:42 Hello!
17:44 The chicken is here, I haven’t swept it out yet.
17:49 The chicken is here with you?!
17:51 Not with me.
17:55 Here’s the broom. I don’t even know what to do.
17:59 Sweep!
18:01 Ok, I’ll sweep.
18:04 I need to put some ash on the floor.
18:08 There’s a little chicken shit down here.
18:18 Good Lord!
18:24 I’ve found my head scarf.
18:38 I don’t want to say the bad things.
18:41 Tell them!
18:43 I just worked in the collective farms for 30 years.
18:50 I worked like a machine, like a machine!
18:57 What should I tell you? The rest of my life?
19:03 Don’t even try to ask about it, because it wasn’t good.
19:07 My husband hit me.
19:10 What was good about that?
19:14 I just worked.
19:17 I tried to adjust to him, but it was impossible.
19:23 I wanted everything to be good.
19:28 There were things which shouldn’t have happened, but did.
19:34 We were different.
19:39 Where would you rather live?
19:43 In Hungary? In Slovakia?
19:47 Nowhere, just here.
19:50 But next to you.
19:53 Everyone around here has family over there.
19:56 It used to be one country after all.
19:59 Families are scattered. Not only from our village,
20:02 but also from the other villages.
21:21 You don’t even know what Communism was.
21:24 I’ve just heard about it.
21:26 It was insane.
21:27 Can you talk about it?
21:29 What can I say?
21:31 When I see something about it on TV now,
21:33 I find it quite funny.
21:36 But it didn’t make me laugh back then.
21:40 Speak. We couldn’t speak.
21:44 And you know, when you can’t even speak,
21:46 what can you do?
22:07 The gently rolling countryside,
22:10 the blossoming orchards of friendship,
22:13 a gaily decorated parade ground at the Czechoslovak-Soviet border...
22:18 a joyful atmosphere, chanting, giving thanks to our liberators,
22:23 long-lasting applause...
22:27 …the signing of a treaty of friendship and cooperation…
22:30 between the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia…
22:35 …sincere thanks to the heroic Soviet people…
23:35 Fear...
23:37 It’s unbelievable what that is.
23:53 HELLO
23:54 ATTENTION:
23:56 WE WANT TO INFORM THE CITIZENS OF OUR COMMUNITY
23:59 THAT BROILER CHICKENS ARE ON SALE
24:04 FOR 40 CROWNS A KILO
24:09 IN FRONT OF THE LOCAL RESTAURANT,
24:13 11-WEEK OLD LAYING-HEN CHICKS
24:17 FOR 90 CROWNS A PIECE
24:23 AND 11-WEEK OLD ROOSTERS FOR 70 CROWNS
24:27 I REPEAT:
24:25 WE WANT TO INFORM THE CITIZENS OF OUR COMMUNITY
24:29 THAT BROILER CHICKENS ARE ON SALE
24:35 FOR 40 CROWNS A KILO
25:01 After 1946-47, Hungarians and Germans were “guilty“.
25:17 Czechoslovakia started to expel both Germans and Hungarians.
25:23 About 70,000 Hungarians were expelled.
25:41 Everyone got a white document saying we were all going to live in Hungary.
25:48 And from there they sent Slovaks to live here.
25:51 An exchange! - They exchanged them.
25:58 If a villager signed a document declaring they were of Slovak nationality,
26:04 that person wasn’t then expelled.
26:10 It was called „Re-Slovakisation“.
26:15 It was especially ridiculous if the person was born here
26:19 and all their ancestors were from here.
26:23 That was the dirty politics of the totalitarian regime.
26:30 Where’s your bike?
26:31 My room mate took it.
26:33 He needed it.
26:34 He should have it if he can’t even buy a bike.
26:38 When my husband died I had three bikes.
26:43 I needed a bike, but he didn’t give it back.
26:47 He said he needed it more than I did.
26:51 If he needs it that much, God should help him.
26:54 And God does help him. He needed the bike.
27:00 Did he really need the bike?
27:01 He did.
27:03 And he can fuck off!
27:06 Don’t say that sister, they’re filming it.
27:10 There’s nothing wrong with it.
27:11 No?!
27:12 Oh, I can’t speak anymore.
27:24 I don’t have that much time, I don’t have time.
27:29 I have to feed the ducks.
27:32 It’s always the ducks, the chickens and again the ducks!
27:38 Poor chicken!
27:40 The magpie took one away.
27:45 He killed the chicken, he killed it!
27:49 Speak Hungarian!
27:53 That’s the problem, you’re Hungarian!
27:56 That’s your mistake.
28:05 What shall we do with the duck?
28:09 I’m going to pluck that duck.
28:47 We couldn’t even shout or come near the border.
28:54 I lived just there but I couldn’t come up here.
28:57 I’d get a 100 crown fine on the spot.
29:02 When people are forcibly denied contact with each other,
29:09 they think up all kinds of things.
29:13 People used to work in the fields near the border.
29:19 A Russian would come up if they got too near on both sides.
29:27 Those people would then start to sing.
29:30 They’d sing their messages to each other.
30:06 One of our dogs was shot.
30:10 He used to go over there too.
30:13 One day we heard a shot.
30:15 The dog made it to the other side
30:16 but then he died.
30:30 There were wires with missiles mounted on them.
30:34 If something touched the wire, the missile would fire into the air.
30:38 But it was usually just rabbits that were shot into the air.
30:43 In the beginning there was barbed wire in knots
30:51 A horse once came by and got caught up in it.
30:54 It got tangled up and died.
32:13 “Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together“
Eugene Ionesco {titles on black}
32:22 How many people lived around that courtyard?
32:29 Pista Zelei lived there.
32:32 Feri.
32:34 Uncle Kontra, Istvan Szelei, our father…
32:41 And Feri lived there.
32:44 Then nobody else but Feri.
32:47 And there were 2 others in another house.
32:52 They lived in a main house, half a house.
32:59 Oh leave me alone.
33:02 It’s not good to talk about this.
33:06 You have to forget it, everybody’s died.
33:12 It’s not good to think about that.
33:14 Uncle Gyuri, uncle Feri, they lived together in one house too.
33:17 They had half the house each.
33:20 A room with a kitchen. That’s all they had.
33:23 It was good for them.
33:25 It was good.
33:27 See? See, it was good.
33:32 It was good as long as you were you.
33:36 You could stand it, it was good.
33:39 After my husband died, yes, it was good.
33:42 Yeah, I could stand it, yeah, it was good.
33:47 I had everything. I had money too.
33:52 I had 2 pigs and a cow; everything!
33:57 So there’s no reason for me to invite you to Slovakia?
34:00 No reason.
34:01 You won’t go and that’s it?
34:02 I won’t go.
34:05 I don’t have any problems now either.
34:07 You won’t go.
34:08 I won’t go.
34:10 That’s it. Taken care of.
34:16 We’ll try and get invited to dinner!
34:20 To the other side?
34:22 They’re not there anymore.
34:24 But I can still hear voices.
34:26 No, the wife got dressed up.
34:28 She put on a red dress and they went away.
34:33 Look at the weeds on the other side.
34:37 Well, he died. Nobody’s looking after it.
34:41 His kids died.
34:44 Everybody died.
34:46 Peter died too.
34:49 When Peter was in Mukacevo he died.
34:52 There’s nobody there, nobody.
35:08 You can come across now! – No we can’t, not just like that!
35:14 I’d come across right now, if I could.
35:19 A person could just walk across and sit down.
35:24 We don’t know anybody over there anymore, except for you.
35:28 I used to know everybody from over there, I knew your mother and father.
35:37 Does he speak Hungarian?
35:40 Course he does!
35:41 He doesn’t say anything to us.
35:46 If he’s not one of us why should he say anything to us.
35:50 What? If he’s not one of us why should he talk to us.
35:53 Oh, OK!
36.05 We were compelled to introduce stricter controls.
36:08 That means the simplified checks have been stopped.
36:11 All travellers will undergo more stringent checks.
36:14 - I assume this will affect all border crossings.
36.17 These measures will be introduced throughout Slovakia.
36.20 For the Ukraine, border checks will be in no way simplified.
36:24 Classic border controls will continue there.
36:30 Little bird, little bird, twittery little bird.
36:42 Take my letter back to my home country.
36:59 If they ask you who sent it,
37:11 Tell them, the one who is dying
37:22 from a heartache
37:33 I’m holding myself up.
37:34 Sit up straight you.
37:38 Sit up straight
37:41 Oh, really!
37:46 Don’t turn that way, turn this way!
37:52 I’m not saying anything to her anymore!
37:55 Oh… God.
37:59 They’re recording what you’re saying now too.
38:02 Everything.
38:23 Just put yourself in my place.
38:27 Alright, I’ll put myself in your place.
38:30 I don’t need it.
38:31 You’re telling me to sell it, and I’m telling you not to sell it.
38:34 So you sit in the house then!
38:39 That would be much better for me.
38:42 OK, so I’ll sit in it.
38:46 That’s not necessary.
38:47 So you’ve got to sell everything. What good are these things to you?
38:53 What things? Will I look at the empty walls?
38:57 Is that why I worked all my life? I need somewhere to lie down at least.
39:02 Hang on. When the time comes, then to whom are you going to leave it all to?
39:08 I’ll leave it. – To whom?
39:10 To whomever lives in it.
39:13 To the Russians for nothing?
39:15 The Russians for nothing.
39:16 For free?
39:17 For free.
39:18 Oh my God!
41:27 I should lock up.
41:43 I don’t even need to do it with a key.
41:47 Everything’s closed now.
41:55 Oh, I left something outside.
42:00 Sorry!
43:08 There between those two pylons is a little white pylon.
43:14 That marks the border.
43:16 What’s the fence for?
43:18 They put that there. But we wouldn’t cross over there anyway.
43:24 They’re more likely to try and get across.
43:28 A lot of people are crossing the border from over there.
43:35 It’s completely different looking here from over there than from here to over there.
43:44 Look at the beautiful carvings. What beautiful work!
43:49 They look like roses.
43:52 That’s our village coat of arms.- Coat of arms?
43:59 Yes. Those two turtles, that’s the Szelmenc coat of arms.
44:13 What about the moon and the stars?
44:15 Over there is the sunrise and over here is the sunset.
44:26 Will they be joined together when a border crossing is opened here?
44:31 No, it will be when the village is reunited.
44:38 Then they’ll give their half back to us, but theirs will be ugly by then!
44:42 It won’t be ugly!
44:44 Theirs isn’t as nicely painted as ours. It’s only been varnished once!
44:48 It will still look nice even after 50 years.
44:52 This one will, but… - And the one on the other side too!
44:55 It’s made of oak.
45:01 The light’s on but it doesn’t look like they’re working.
45:51 “People who live in the post-totalitarian system know only too well that the question of whether or not one or several political parties are in power, and how these parties define and label themselves, is of far less importance than then question of whether or not it is possible to live like a human being.“
Vaclav Havel {titles on black}
47:01 Ever since the 1989 political change,
47:04 companies started to be privatised, usually by people who weren’t from here.
47:12 There is high unemployment.
47:15 Young people are leaving for the Czech Republic and elsewhere for work.
47:24 Everyone has to live but there’s nothing to live off here.
47:28 Those two factories aren’t enough.
47:33 They are being privatised now so there will be even less people employed there.
47:37 That’s life.
47:43 Well, what can we do?
47:45 Try to understand...
47:47 What can we do about politics?
47:49 We can’t do anything.
48:47 Oh, what will happen to me here?
49:02 I have to know what will happen to me.
49:04 Everybody else knows.
49:06 Nobody needs me because I’m old.
49:09 They didn’t need me when I was young either.
49:48 Oh my God!
49:50 Where should I go?
49:53 Oh, I can’t stand it.
49:55 I can’t stand the garden anymore.
50:10 My sweater is hanging up there.
50:16 Not that one, the sweater. - This one?
50:19 That one! That one!
50:22 Hang on. I’m just tying this on.
50:28 Are you looking forward to going home?
50:31 Home.
50:32 Are you looking forward to it?
50:33 Of course I am!
50:36 Wouldn’t live here.
50:47 Oh, auntie Barbora, don’t cry!
50:49 I’ve got something to cry for though.
50:58 You don’t need to cry, everything will be fine.
51:01 I’ll be back on Monday.
51:03 When?
51:04 Monday
51:05 I’ll come back on Monday.
51:08 You come and you go!
51:12 I’m sorry.
51:17 I’m not angry with her.
51:21 We had an argument this morning. She told me I didn’t have anything.
51:27 Oh, she just said it. She didn’t mean it.
51:31 I don’t even know how to decide. I don’t even want to know.
51:35 It makes my heart ache.
51:43 I must go away, even if it rains.
51:54 Even if it’s hard to go, hard to leave you alone.
52:05 Oh Lord, oh I have to forget your words comforting me.
52:25 If you go away, you will leave sorrow in my heart.
52:34 Grief, like a shallow grave, I will die for you my love.
53:34 “As soon as man began considering himself the source of the highest meaning in the world and the measure of everything, the world began to lose its human dimension, and man began to lose control of it.“
Vaclav Havel {titles on black}
54:13 Even since 1989 nothing’s changed.
54:16 Here at the border, nothing’s changed.
54:22 I haven’t gone anywhere and I’m living in my fourth country.
54:24 But it’s still the same house in the same place.
56:57 {Programme end}