The Prisoners of the Useless

In 1998, the first Kosovo crisis opens the dreadful ballet of what will be called the "Balkan question." The West, with its singular perspective, rolls out its reasoning based on questions to which it invariably provides short-term answers. After the Kosovo question came the Bosnian question, then the Macedonian question... Some today predict a Hungarian question through Vojvodina and Transylvania. Predict? In 1919, under the Treaty of Trianon, Hungary lost more than half its population and two-thirds of its territory.

Type (Documentaire / Documentaire fiction / Série documentaire)DocumentaryGenre en anglaisSociety & Economy Directed by William GuérinSupported by CNCYear2002Duration80min

At that moment, it was believed that the questions of Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been resolved. It was thought that the stability of Europe had been achieved. In reality, what was being imposed on Central Europe was the violence of a concept that contained the seeds of future catastrophes: the nation-state. Neither Lloyd George nor Clemenceau were willing to risk allowing a form of confederation that would challenge their concept of national sovereignty. The ideological war then hastened the classical war to its final extremes. Today, we still witness the horrifying movement of borders that had been established on paper.

What about Hungary, this country that sometimes finds amusement and often feels stifled by being “the only neighbor of itself”?

This is the question we pose in this documentary, drawing on 80 years of Hungarian history and a journey through four countries (Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, Slovakia).

Other works by William Guérin

La Rochelle – Essaouira : a passage

La Rochelle, September 2000: Pascal Ducourtioux, a jazz composer, chooses to record his next album by inviting Gnawa musicians from Essaouira. Essaouira, March 2001: we follow him to Morocco.…