Please join us for a FREE Screening of this powerful and relevant film at the Knickerbocker Theater in Holland, Michigan.
Democracy Noir: A New Dawn, tells the inspiring story of resistance in Hungary to Viktor Orban’s regime and of his stunning defeat. Our film tells this story through the brave activism of its three subjects, opposition politician Tímea Szabo, journalist Babett Oroszi, and nurse Nikoletta (Niko) Antal.
A film by Academy Award Nominee and Emmy Winning Director Connie Field and Producer Sigrid Dyekjaer
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr0tneWNC1U
---More About the Film---
The film provides a sweeping account of how Viktor Orbán used a free and democratic election to install authoritarian rule in Hungary, enjoying widespread approval from Hungarian nationalists as well as global conservatives inclined to his illiberal views. He changed the constitution, took over the courts, dismantled the rule of law, and took over the media. Revered by Donald Trump and the Heritage Foundation, Orban’s influence helped shape Project 2025 and the current policies of the Republican Party.
On April 12, 2026 Péter Magyar’s party Tisza came to power in Hungary after 16 years of the autocratic rule of Viktor Orbán. The triumph was unique in our era of democratic backsliding — and it holds clear lessons for the United States.
In his campaign Péter Magyar enumerated the ways in which Orbán had damaged Hungary: a stalled economy, inadequate health care, an atmosphere of hatred and fear. Orbán had "stolen from the common good of the Hungarian nation — from the pockets of the Hungarian people, and from the tables of Hungarian children and the elderly." He called Orbán's government a mafia state — a fundamentally criminal enterprise.
His win revealed that in-person politics can be a powerful antidote to media fear-mongering. 79% of the Hungarian population voted, the highest ever! Young people drove the campaign, 90% voting for Magyar.
Magyar did not create his political machine from scratch. A panoply of grass-roots protest movements joined ordinary Hungarians to end the Orbán era.