30 years after the fall of communism, as Budapest's Soviet-era architecture is vibrantly refurbished, so is the playbook for authoritarian rule. The relentless propaganda of Viktor Orbán’s 2019 White House visit blares through the televisions of Budapest, where the Orbán regime holds near-total media control. A facade of democracy still exists in Hungary, but underneath it lies the familiar architecture of authoritarian rule. With the 2024 election on the horizon, the United States faces its own moment of reckoning, prompting many to wonder if it will follow Hungary's footsteps, where the facade of democracy thinly veils the reality of authoritarian control.
CREW:
Director: Kay Hannahan
Producer: Co-Producers: Tyler Hurley, Viki Reka Kiss
Cinematographer: Kay Hannahan
Sound: Jennilee Park
Sales:
Fieldnote Films
Awards
Global Insights Award at Black Maria Film Festival (various locations, 2017);
Best Documentary Short at Short to the Point Film Festival (Bucharest, 2017)
Director
Kay Hannahan
Kay Hannahan is a filmmaker based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her films have been featured by The Atlantic and the U.S. National Gallery of Art, and screened at film festivals around the world including the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, the Docudays UA International Human Rights Film Festival, and Docaviv International Documentary Film Festival. Kay holds an MFA in film & media arts from Temple University and a BA in anthropology from Concordia University, Montreal. She was a 2018/19 Fulbright filmmaking fellow in Hungary and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bulgaria. She is currently an assistant professor at Winona State University.Selected Filmography
Altimir (2017), Yordan (2016) 
