Történelem, emlékezet, cenzúra: A tanú mint emlékezethely

Abstract

My paper investigates Péter Bacsó’s film, A tanú (The Witness) as a lieu de mémoire. Shot in 1969, the film was banned shortly after its first screenings by the socialist censorship. One of the main reasons behind this was the way the film violated the politics of memory of the Kádár-era. However, the work became a cult film in Hungary. A decade later, the regime enabled the public screenings and the movie was included in the programmes of international film festivals. My essay attempts to describe how the film’s genre (as a satire), its relation to previous periods of Hungarian history (especially the years of the Rákosi- and the Kádár-era), and the mechanisms of socialist censorship contributed to its status as a lieu de mémoire today.