OBSERVERS

An informant for the secret police is most often not what one chooses to become, but it can be considered the second worst option in a system that keeps tabs on a huge number of people – even the loyal, the remotely suspicious or uninfluential – and knows their secrets and vulnerabilities.
Everybody has something to hide. To be successful in operative work, an informant has to ease into and stay credible in different roles. He or she should not raise suspicion in his or her private life, should gain the trust of the subject and show absolute loyalty to his or her handler.

This story is set in Hungary in the 1960’s. The secret police has Michael Besenczy under surveillance. Besenczy is Hungarian but has been living in England since his childhood. As a young man he came back to his home country to study film directing at the University of Theatre and Film Arts. The Hungarian authorities suspect he is working with British intelligence. Informants placed around him are commissioned to form intimate friendships, erotic relationships with the subject in order to learn as much as possible about him in order to provide privileged information. But no matter how skilful and cautious these informants are, they cannot hide from the secret police’s and each other’s observant gaze. In the end they might find themselves vulnerable, suddenly recognizing their own deepest fears in the eyes of their subject.

"Looking through all these yellowed agent reports - often ridden with spelling mistakes – through my research in the Archives of the State Security Services to gather data about this era brought a lot of ideas to mind." (Kristóf Kelemen)