The Screening of the "Trianon" Documentary Stirs Passions in Cluj County

The newly-appointed head of the Cluj County, Mihai Hardau, protested publicly against the show on screen of the "Trianon" documentary film, by Hungarian director Gabor Koltay. The screening took place Friday, 7 January, at the ball-room of the Protestant Theological Institute in Cluj-Napoca city.

Mihai Hardau took issue with the screening of the Trianon documentary film

"The Office of the Prefect of the Cluj County publicly protests against the screening of the "Trianon" documentary, a film which advocates the rebirth of the Greater Hungary," wrote in a press-release signed by Hardau and issued yesterday. Koltay relied on the writings of historian Erno Rofai to make this film. The documentary presents the historical events which led to signing the Treaty of Trianon and the consequences it had on the Hungarian nation. With signing that treaty on 4 June 1920, Hungary lost two-thirds of the territory it had as part of the Habsburg monarchy, between 1867 and 1918. Many Hungarian ethnics were thus left outside the borders of Hungary. The documentary screened last week in Cluj had been screened before in other six cities around Transylvania, and it is an abridged version of the film that Koltay edited after the Hungarian television stations MT2 and Duna TV refused to broadcast the 14 episodes of the series.

"As long as such a film is controversial and was not accepted for broadcast in Hungary, a member-country of the European Union, more so its screening in Romania should be under scrutiny. It stays with the appropriate bodies of the Ministry of Education and Research, of the Ministry of Culture and Religious Creeds and of the Public Prosecutor to start their own inquiries and investigate the screening which took place in a Government funded education facility, hence subjected to abiding by the Law of Education, and that was organized by an Association which has a statute that should also stay within the boundaries of the law," said prefect Hardau.

He also scolded some of his close advisers or colleagues for attending the screening on Friday evening. Among those were Karoly Vekov, former deputy of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania; Gyla Samadi, local councilor for the city of Cluj-Napoca; Sandor Kerekes, vice-president of the County Council. Also attending was the Hungarian diplomat Laszlo Konza, economic issues attaché of the Hungarian General Consulate in Cluj-Napoca city.

Reactions to the prefect’s statements were swift to emerge. Janos Soos, president of the Hungarian Youth in Transylvania, said that his organization was fined by the police in Odorheiu Secuiesc city after the screening ended. He deemed the action to be illegal and abusive.

For his part, the provost of the Protestant Theological Institute in Cluj-Napoca, Tamas Juhasz, said that his institute was not co-organizer of the screening it hosted.