Skip to main content
Democracy Noir film image; people in suits clustered together

Democracy Noir

Insights

This event has passed

Canadian Premiere

Since 2010, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party has been in power in Hungary, dismantling democracy and implanting far-right ideologies into the country’s political and social structures. From blatant cronyism and media censorship to restricting the rights of women, immigrants, and LGBTQ communities, Orbán’s government is chipping away at Hungary’s social fabric, ushering in an atmosphere of hate and religious nationalism. Democracy Noir highlights three women working tirelessly to fight for their country’s soul in the face of personal, public, and institutional pressures: Timea, a politician; Babette, a journalist; and Nico, a nurse.

Director Connie Field (The Whistleblower of My Lai) chronicles each woman’s life and work and tracks years of activism and protests as they bravely push back against Orbaìn’s corruption, media manipulation, and hate-mongering rhetoric. More than just a chilling exposé of far-right nationalism in the heart of Europe, Democracy Noir lights a beacon of hope, inspiring solidarity in its portraits of joyful, relentless resistance.

 

Sept 30 & Oct 1: Q&A with director Connie Field

 

Media Partner

Director
Featuring

Nikoletta Antal, Babett Oroszi, Timea Szabo, Maria Antalne Deak

Credits
Country of Origin

USA/Denmark

Year

2024

Language

In Hungarian and English with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+
90 min
Documentary Human Rights & Social Justice Q&As at VIFF Women Directors
Clarity Films, Real Lava

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Geralyn Dreyfous, Adam Lewis, Melony Lewis, Romain Bessi, Philippe Levasseur

Producer

Sigrid Dyekjær, Connie Field

Cinematography

Connie Field, Gergo Somogyvari

Editor

Gregory Scharpen, Jakob Juul Toldam

Original Music

Jonas Struck

Connie Field; Democracy Noir director

Connie Field

Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning director Connie Field has made several high-profile documentaries that have been shown all over the world and broadcast in over 30 countries. She is the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim grant, as well as numerous awards from the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities (and Arts), and the MacArthur Foundation. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences and the Television Academy.

Filmography: The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (1980); Have You Heard From Johannesburg? (2006); Al Helm: Martin Luther King in Palestine (2014); The Whistleblower of My Lai (2018)

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

The Godfather

Dir. Francis Ford Coppola
175 min

A family saga in more senses than one, Francis Coppola's enthralling gangster opus aims to chronicle the American experience through the twentieth century. It is both a success story and a study of moral corruption.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Shoplifters

Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
121 min

A Palme d'or winner in 2018, Shoplifters is both a hard-edged and heartwarming drama about a makeshift family of impoverished urchins and orphans in contemporary Tokyo.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Samia

Dir. Yasemin Şamdereli
102 min

Despite growing up in Mogadishu, Somalia, during the civil war, Samia Yusuf Omar persists in her dream of becoming an Olympic athlete and competes in Beijing, 2008 -- with London, 2012 next on her agenda. Based on a true story.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Melancholia

Dir. Lars von Trier
135 min

Lars von Trier squares up to the end times with this grandly luxuriant but surprisingly punky sci-fi, set in an imposing country mansion house, where Justine (Kirsten Dunst) blows up what's supposed to be the happiest day of her life.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Sudan, Remember Us

Dir. Hind Meddeb
78 min

A portrait of young artists and activists, Meddeb's doc charts events in Khartoum between 2019 -- in the immediate wake of the revolution that deposed dictator Omar al-Bashir -- and the mood four years later, when the country has been torn apart by civil war.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Missouri Breaks

Dir. Arthur Penn
126 min

This exuberant, wild and wooly western from Arthur Penn features a brazenly transgressive performance from Marlon Brando, while Jack Nicholson underplays masterfully as the cattle rustler he's been hired to eliminate.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema