56Films

🎬 Another profound and deeply moving interview completed for our upcoming film on political transitions.

We had the honor of speaking with János M. Rainer, one of the foremost historians of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and former head of the now-defunct Institute of 1956. His work has been guided by a commitment to rigorous, research-based historical narratives, and to ensuring that the legacy of 1956 is understood beyond political reinterpretation.

At a critical moment in the country’s transition, he undertook the solemn task of compiling the names of those executed in the aftermath of the 1956 revolution—the martyrs whose fates had long been suppressed. These names were read aloud during the historic reburial of Imre Nagy on June 16, 1989—one of the defining moments of Hungary’s democratic transition.

We are grateful for his historic contribution to that moment, and for sharing his knowledge and reflections with us today. 🇭🇺

We were deeply saddened by news from the Memory Project ...

Julius Várallyay | Memory Project Julius Várallyay 1956er Interview by Andrea Lauer Rice & Réka Pigniczky ALL MATERIAL: COPYRIGHT CALIFORNIA EUROPEAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE/MEMORY PROJECT Julius (Gyula) Várallyay was born on July 26, 1937 in Nyiregyháza, Hungary. His family hails from Borsod county for many generations back, and his...