Everyone knows the name of Lóránd Eötvös, but few know that he took many photographs, as did the painter Miklós Barabás. The 21st century is dealing with the more than 180-year history of photography, in which, in addition to photographers, image editors and exhibition curators are looking for the answer to the question: what makes a photograph good?

There are phenomena that, whether we want them or not, are not here. Such is globalization, the effects of which we enjoy and suffer every day. What do we owe to the great geographical discoveries and what are our daily losses?

At the end of the eighties, József Ruszt, the renowned director, left the Szeged National Theatre during the season. A significant part of the prose department followed him. Since the city was still called Komócsin County at the time, the unprecedented rebellion caused a great storm there and in other theater circles in the country. The recalcitrant actors founded the Független Színpad without a penny of income, but with great enthusiasm. Their performances had no scenery, lighting, or costumes, but with unparalleled ideas and acting energy they created nationally renowned performances, for which the payment was usually a bowl of food. From the 90s onwards, there were no official obstacles to the company's operation, but the company fell apart due to the systemic problems that plagued the alternative theater sphere and have not been resolved since then.

It is well known that films have been made about Budapest for over 100 years. You can see a lot of people walking, a relatively large number of trams and a few cars in a metropolis. But what life was like in Csorna, we only knew from descriptions and a few photos. Until now. A film has been discovered about the small town near Győr, which you can now see for the first time. And if that were not enough, the footage taken in 1918 features a legendary con artist from the Horthy era: Menyhért Horváth.

There is no cure for family, they say. And yet it is the most beautiful and best solution for life. Pain, struggle and happiness – this is family. And what those who live together call it.

The founder of Nyugat, the scion of the last wealthy patronage family. That's pretty much all we know about Lajos Hatvany. Few have heard of his political trial, his relationship with his passionate art collector brother Ferenc and his tragic sister, his love as a maid in a brothel, and the children born from the relationship. What happened to the amazing family fortune? Why does Moscow still think that the paintings purchased by Ferenc Hatvany are rightfully gathering dust in the cellars of its museums? Do the descendants living today even know what an infinite wealth their ancestors lived in? Borbála Kerekes seeks answers to these questions, among others, with the last Hatvany descendant raised in Hungary, Helga Hatvany.

What kind of card player was János Kádár? The party secretary-general loved ulti and only played for penny stakes. How did the communist regime relate to gambling, while actors, politicians and factory workers also regularly played cards? The most popular game, ulti, is now preserved only by a few last Mohicans. The centuries-old history of Hungarian cards from the gentry world through socialism to the present.

A love triangle and lots of music. Why did Bubble Bath fail in its time? Because in 1980 we didn't know that an animated film could also appeal to adults. That the main characters could be not only princes, but also single women who want to learn, that questions could be raised about why the three-child family model cannot be realized, and that the most ordinary things in life are the most interesting. György Kovásznai was ahead of his time. Because of his radical artistic views, he was ostracized from the visual arts and literary world, so he devoted all his talent to making animated films. The brilliant eclecticism, courage, and freedom of his art were only discovered by the official canon in the 2000s.

Politicians expected side-talk, praise, and silence. The agitprop department issued the instructions on what they could and could not talk about – but what could a journalist do if they wanted to tell the truth, not just the real thing? Were there real rebels and why did so many of them stand behind politicians just when it was no longer mandatory? Journalism before, during, and after the regime change, or why did we let it be this way?

On March 15, 1989, the day of the '48 revolution and freedom struggle was celebrated freely in Budapest for the first time. The most memorable moments were when the actor György Cserhalmi read out the demands of the opposition organizations, the Twelve Points of '89, on the steps of the television headquarters. While the police had broken up the demonstration a year earlier, they were no longer threatened in '89. Former participants and organizers share their memories of the events that took place 35 years ago.

A building where everyone who shaped 20th-century Hungarian history has visited. A building where stars, politicians and artists exchanged doorknobs. A building that was inhabited only by soldiers for years. A building where counterintelligence had access. What stories do the robust walls of the Gellért Hotel hide? Who wanted to house a horse in it and what were the advantages of working at the Gellért? Secrets, rumors and guests in Vanda Szondi's film from the past 100 years of the Gellért Hotel.

Writer, poet, artist. He left school to work as a locksmith apprentice and then as a foundry worker. He walked for months to reach his dream city, Paris, only to write in disappointment, "I saw Paris and saw nothing." A defining artist, newspaper editor, and movement organizer of Hungarian avant-garde literature and art. A committed leftist, social democrat, but an independent artist unable to affiliate himself with parties and systems.

People flocked to Karády's film in 1939, the last year of peace. The summer was happy, and the toy store windows were filled with an arsenal of weapons: children's rifles, tanks, and pistols. Few fled. What should one have paid attention to, how could one know that war was coming?

In the 1980s, if someone applied to the College of Fine Arts or Applied Arts, they also applied to the window dressing vocational training school, because at that time this institution was the "entrance hall" of art institutions. The school owed its popularity to its free-spirited training methods and the artist teachers who taught there. One full year of the two years of education was dedicated to teaching contemporary fine arts. Art writings acquired from abroad were made available to students in homemade translations and stenciled copies. The education was practice-oriented, and students had to prepare for the end-of-year art history exam with a performance or happening. According to the former director, school education in the 1980s operated within a more open framework than today.

Star Wars was not the first, but it is certain that the film had the greatest impact on the fact that science fiction culture had so many followers in Hungary. The most important forum for domestic fans was Galaktika, whose editor-in-chief, Péter Kuczka, is the story of today's 21st century. Kuczka, as a staunch communist, was a supporter of Rákosi, wrote poems about the party and the "dear leader", and then total disillusionment followed. In '56, he was a supporter of Imre Nagy, for which he was subjected to complete silence and deprivation. At Móra Könyvkiadó, he was entrusted with sci-fi literature because at that time it was still considered weightless, children's literature. Kuczka then influenced the entire genre, giving opportunities to many young people.

You can see a film about the life of one of Hungary's most successful hitmakers, Attila Horváth. The special thing about the portrait is that we are not illustrating Attila Horváth's work with archive footage, but with one of the most popular performers of our time, Kati Wolf, and her fellow musicians. We have selected 5 hits played by nationally known but different-style performers, the lyrics of which were all written by Attila Horváth, and Kati and her played them in the RTL studio.

New stars flocked after the cemented stars of cemented comrades. Some brought a bikini or a cleaning lady, it was a bang in the head and the Volga roared. The king is dead, long live the kings, or life and album release after Péter Erdős.

In 1923, Governor Miklós Horthy went to the cinema out of patriotic duty and watched a film. Pál Fejős, the director, was no longer there for the screening, he was filming in America. Therefore, he did not experience the fall of his film, The Stars of Eger. The film was not a success, and no copies of it survived.

It did not even exist on paper, so much so that the moral police department established to control it was also abolished - this was how the socialist state leadership approached prostitution. The enjoyment of bodily pleasures for their own sake did not fit into the socialist ideal of man, so prostitution was banned along with the nuns. But what is forbidden is an excellent breeding ground for blackmail, compromise and intimidation. So perhaps it is not surprising that the police not only turned a blind eye to the work of prostitutes, but also used them by state security.

The love that holds a family together is so strong that when it is broken, the family members collapse. Every regime knows this well. If their violent organizations want to achieve something with someone, they blackmail them with their family.

The ideal man doesn't drink himself to the ground, doesn't smoke in the apartment, gives his wife respect. He has a plot of land and a car. But it's okay if he doesn't. He flirts, but he's loyal. He can be tall and blonde, but he can also be short and brunette. He doesn't do housework, but he works multiple shifts. He doesn't cry, he doesn't get emotional, because the ideal man is macho. This is how you could describe the ideal man of the Kádár era. The ideal man is an understanding, sensitive, caring father. He admits that he has feelings, helps with housework, supports the woman in self-realization. He's thin, athletic. It's good if he has a competitive profession, but he can also have an artistic soul. This is how you could describe the man that women most desire today.

He has had an exceptional acting career: he has played and is playing in the best theaters, with the best directors, he has been filming since college, he received the Kossuth Award in his mid-thirties, and has been the Actor of the Nation since 2023. He was a member of the National Theater for twenty-two years, but now new challenges await him. The 21st Century crew visited him in his National Theater dressing room and accompanied him to a concert in Szolnok. He told us about his parents, the beginning of his career, his big decisions, films, performances, and concerts.

It was believed to be a noble party and an expensive hobby of the elite – and still is today, by those who only see it from afar. An inimitable sense of life and a test of strength – say those who have come close to it. A competition that transcends systems.

Silence, order, discipline, camaraderie, rule-breaking and betrayal. A Western military school where everything happened just like in movies and books. Even the disillusionment. A unique memoir, or School on the Border.

First they said it wasn't for Hungarians. Then they said it wasn't for weak people. Not even for women, because it was believed to make them infertile. Yet it conquered – only to disappear from the cities during the Kádár era. Cycling as we never thought of it.

They were seen on the streets, in small car workshops – there was no corner of the country where they were not seen. But what did the planned economy give to models? And why were they allowed to be mysterious objects of desire where sexuality was considered the property of the declining West?

While Bye Bye Saxony was being sung and freedom was being celebrated at home, the leaders of the great powers in the West were not at all convinced that this change would end well. Who was in the interest of the transformation? Who let the Eastern Bloc go? Was it the declining East, or rather the West, that was to be feared?

From the spinner to Tinder, this episode about dating in the 21st century takes us on a journey. How did people court, flirt, and have sex in the countryside and in the city in the last century? How do we date now, and what does the 70-plus generation think about online dating? Love, passion, marriage, cheating, then and now.

The train, full of university students returning home, was speeding towards Budapest at a speed of 110 km/h when it reached a poorly set switch. What happened next shocked even experienced journalists, paramedics and firefighters. We are commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Szajoli tragedy.

There was pressure, there was expectation, there was a cage – and there was happiness, there was a fulfilled dream, there was the very harbor they always wanted to reach. Breakthrough artists, a flaming young couple and a retired aunt also tell us about what and how has changed in this ancient institution.

We all know one. Or we know someone who knows it: the classic communal space, the pub. And the doomed, fallible, comical, lovable characters who live there. We think of them as typically Hungarian, but they are loved everywhere from England to Germany to Romania. At least in the play that was the most performed performance of the Katona József Theatre.

Behind the block houses, at the end of the kitchen garden, the rural people found an unexpected source of income. When it seemed that the TSZ would completely eliminate traditional peasant farms, the state party made a concession and one of the successful industries of the Kádár era was born. In the past, we could find it on almost every village gate – now there is lawn and thuja in its place.

Two chemical engineers who changed the world. Two women who not only promised, but actually made their country great. And in just eleven or two years. One of them was a "war advocate", the other a supporter of unity and negotiations. The Iron Lady and Angie, that is, Thatcher and Merkel - the legends who lived and live with us.

Whoever hasn't read Nemeré, well, hasn't read. That's how the sci-fi fan readers who went to the library thought. With Balázs Kiss's previous film, we now remember him, the recently deceased writer. With the film, which commemorates a poet - editor, without whom we might not have known Nemeré. And neither the world of galaxies far, far away.

Millions play it, it fills stadiums, it has world stars and you can make a fortune with it - but sometimes you don't even have to get up from your computer while exercising.

Two films about school, 51 years apart. One changed Hungarian filmmaking. The other changed the habits of moviegoers. But should a film be made about school? And is education really terrible?

If you love a bird, be a sky, not a cage. Maybe this is the secret. Maybe Anna T. Szabó wrote in a single line how a man and a woman can love each other for a lifetime. Just like she and György Dragomán. Fear, liberation, love, poetry and prose.