TORN FROM THE FLAG (A LYUKAS ZASZLO) Milestones

Klaudia Kovacs’s film tells the extraordinary tragic story of Hungary’s struggle for national identity against the domination of Soviet Communism with special emphasis on the briefly successful armed popular rebellion in October 1956 that was put down when Soviet tanks invaded the capital city of Budapest.

A handful of incredibly proud and impassioned survivors of those days tell how they went from being idealistic communists, to being fierce antigovernment freedom fighters, and then the victims of terribly brutal repression. The story continues to its unexpected and inspiring sequel, the fall of the Soviet Empire in ’89 that was partly lead by Hungarian activists crossing the border into Austria and defying moribund Cold War rules and regulations.

Those who survived the crackdown in 1956 to see the events of 1989 light up with the sense that their sufferings and sacrifices have finally borne fruit and that their lives and country have found redemption.