Biopics and the Reverse Engineering of Populism in Recent Hungarian Cinema

This article explores the recent transformation of Hungarian cinema focusing on the increased number of historical films since 2020. The upsurge in historical themed productions featuring historical or otherwise popular figures could not have happened without either the infrastructural developments triggered by international runaway pro??ductions or the generous financial support of the National Film Fund, the central funding body of cinema. More recent historical representations have openly adopted populist and illiberal narratives of national pride, patriotism, and exceptionalism. Exploring the new politics of biopics in specific and historical films in general, the article adopts the notion of reverse engineering as both a stylistic practice and a means of recruiting historical figures to fight the political and cultural battles of populism. The article captures the changing framework of representing history with reference to The Whiskey Bandit, Bet on Revenge, Blockade, and Hadik and through analysing closely the construction of their protagonists. Analysing strategies of making historical characters appealing for contemporary audiences, the latter group of films are described as hyper-politicised historical imageries that transfer Christian, nativist, and anti-elitist agendas dominating the right-wing populist echo chamber into the story-worlds of biopics.