Angéla Császár

The story is of a veteran hussar in the Austrian army in the first half of the 19th century who sits in the village inn regaling his listeners with fantastic tales of heroism

The film, taking place in 1950, presents the story of Father Leopold and the monks of his order struggling to once again revive Christianity in a country trying to scrape itself together after the war. Initially, the communist powers do not hinder their work, and the Church was even able to regain possession of holy objects hidden during the war. This "peaceful" state does not last long. Father Leopold is arrested on trumped up charges, and in order to break him, he is subjected to cruel torture. His former student, Lieutenant Keller, who turned his back on religion and now believes in the socialist system, is appointed - upon the command of Major Fyodorov - to extract a confession of guilt. But the Father's perseverance and resistance changes everything.

Divided into four sections, "Song" is inspired by the Siberian and Finno-Ugric legends about Creation, in which the world begins with characters who are only half-human, one being half-bird, the other half-bear. The narrator delves into the origins of Hungarian culture, the Iranian and Turkish influences that impacted the society, and finally the story of Stephen, the emperor who brought Christianity to the country and shifted the capital west in an attempt to link with Europe.

In 2017, three inmates - a former prime minister, an online journalist and a prison guard - await their sentences at Budapest’s Kozma Street Prison, each haunted by the spring 2006 elections, the Őszöd speech leak, the MTV siege and the October 23 protests at Astoria. As they relive those pivotal moments, their memories intertwine to reveal how that year’s political upheaval reshaped Hungary’s future.