“Italy is our home too; it’s great that after sixteen years we’ve returned to Europe,” Hungarian prime minister-elect Péter Magyar on Tuesday evening at the Riviera Film Festival in Sestri Levante, Italy.
According to MTI, Magyar spoke at the Riviera Film Festival, where he attended the premiere of "Tavaszi szél – Az ébredés", a documentary about him alongside the film’s creators, director Tamás Yvan Topolánszky and producer Claudia Sümeghy. The film's creators shadowed Magyar and his team for over a year: they filmed them on road trips and campaign events throughout the country, had background conversations with them, and even filmed in the politician’s immediate surroundings, including his home. The film's trailer may be viewed below:
This was the first time the film was shown to Italian audiences. Magyar highlighted the long-standing friendship between Italy and Hungary, and said that those who believe Italy is a place where Hungarians feel at home are right.
According to him, the documentary played a decisive role in the Tisza Party’s election victory. He noted that the film was viewed by 3.3 million people on YouTube in the space of two days, and the Tisza Party received 3.3 million votes in the election. “In a way, it helped open the eyes of the Hungarian people,” Péter Magyar was quoted as saying by the Italian news agency Ansa.
The chairman of the Tisza Party also mentioned that during his campaign over the past two years, he had made several references to prosecutor Giovanni Falcone and judge Paolo Borsellino, who were murdered in a Mafia attack in Sicily in 1992. “We had to fight a different kind of Mafia in Hungary. We, too, fought against the mafia—the political-economic mafia. That is why I saw a parallel with them. They did not survive the fight, but the entire Italian nation owes them a debt of gratitude, which is why I mentioned them several times during the election campaign. I know that the Hungarian people understood the analogy, and that we will succeed, he said.
The film *Tavaszi szél – az ébredés* premiered in Hungary on March 12; and was produced by Juno Pictures. The RIFF festival, which is held in Sestri Levante from May 5 to 10, focuses on young directors under the age of 35. The festival has been held since 2017. In 2019, Tamás Yvan Topolánszky won the award for best director for his biographical film "Curtiz – The Hungarian Who Turned Hollywood Upside Down".
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