Research Background

Lili is an oral history project commissioned directed by Dr Peter Hegedus for the House of Terror Museum in Budapest in the wake of the 60th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution. The revolution has been explored in a number of narrative films such as the critically acclaimed Sunshine (1999), as well as in documentaries such as Grandfathers and Revolutions (1999) and Torn from the Flag (2007). However employing the modes of oral history documentary filmmaking as shown in such films as Shoah (1985) also provides a powerful way of retaining subjective memory of traumatic events. The question that this projects poses is ‘how to best preserve the memory of traumatic events for future generations?’ Research Contribution This oral history documentary relies purely on the raw portrayal of subjective memory. It avoids quick edits, juxtapositions, heavy use of music or other filmic devices to provide the viewer with only the experience of subjective memory of the participant in relation to the traumatic memories of the Hungarian revolution. Through this minimalistic approach the viewer is compelled to immerse themselves in the story uninterrupted by the filmmaker’s creative treatment of actuality. This project proposes that oral history creates the ideal setting for preserving subjective memory of important historical events allowing the viewer to gain a unique insight into the particular event Research Significance The film is now on display in the House of Terror Museum located in the heart of Budapest. The building of the Museum used to be the headquarters of the communist party’s notorious secret police and is now one of the most visited Museums in Hungary in terms of domestic and to a great extent international visitors. This project along with other commissioned works about the revolution had its official launch on the 16th of June 2017 in Budapest. Lili therefore becomes an important vehicle through which people can learn about this critical part of European history as well as revisit this collective trauma in an effort to reconcile the past amongst themselves and within their families.