As vice-president of Jobbik, Hungary’s far-right extremist party, Csanad Szegedi regularly espoused anti-Semitic rhetoric and Holocaust denials.
He was a founder of the Hungarian Guard, a now-banned militia inspired by the Arrow Cross, a pro-Nazi party complicit in the murder of thousands of Jews during WWII. Then came a revelation which upended his life: Szegedi’s maternal grandparents were revealed to be Jewish and his beloved grandmother an Auschwitz survivor who had hidden her faith fearing further persecution.
The movie Keep Quiet, from Kino Lorber, depicts Szegedi’s three year journey as he is guided by Rabbi Boruch Oberlander to embrace his newfound religion, forcing him to confront the painful truths of his family’s past, his own wrong doing and the turbulent history of his country.
But is this astonishing transformation a process of genuine reparation and spiritual awakening? Or is he simply a desperate man who, having failed to suppress the truth, has nowhere else to turn?
Keep Quiet earned just over $50,000 during its theatrical run, which is the equivalent of selling about 6000 tickets to the film.
