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Once upon a time, where it wasn’t, there was a children’s camp in Hungary in the 80’s that was physically held in Szendrő, Borsod county, but actually it was in an imaginary country, Epipo, and it was so magical that the campers they retired throughout the year. But the fabulous memories were obscured by the abuse: micro-assault rather than micro-assault was common at the camp, and the camp’s enthusiastic leader, Paul Sipos, sexually abused several children. This is what Judit Oláh’s documentary, Return to Epipo.
“Post coitus omnis animalis triste”, that is, “all animals are sad after intercourse,” he said. Paul Sipos to a teenage student after a joint masturbation, and by then you know how long, thanks to professional manipulation, the boy even believed that his feelings about what happened came only from the instinctive legacy expressed in his hostel verb. He quoted the same phrase in 2014 Peter Magyari Also the one where he first realized what the general public wore about what Sipos wore – even if the article didn’t name him, there were enough handrails in the story he described to identify who he was, and then the taboo of naming slowly faded, I don’t know how. However, I closely followed the articles on the subject: they all have their commas of public offenders, Ophélie Bretnacher and the murderous issue of the balance was pressed, and of Sipos. The reason is not a secret: many years before the fall of the article, I began to learn the profession in the editorial office of the then elegant Hungarian Television, of which Sipos was the director at the time. Peace of mind: I did not understand any atrocity, Sipos seemed a cheerful guy to others, he never said a word to me why he would have done it with the smallest pieces at the far end of the food chain, and although the rumors were that the apprentice children they weren’t even paid, I was very bothered by the case, connecting the article of a Hungarian colleague and some threads, I also understood what it was about.
And why is this little detour included? Return to Epipo in a review of the doc. Because the fact that I was able to experience all of this is far from just a personal addition, but an inherent part of the case: Sipos may have been one of the leading figures in the Hungarian media in 2009, with sexual abuse at school. mentioned in the first sentences of my article in the 1980s. and from then until Magyari’s article, never on the merits, no one held him responsible. In fact, not even after that, because his actions were obsolete by that time, and despite the fact that they reformed the Penal Code in the wake of the scandal, this did not allow Sipos to be held accountable, although he never denied his actions. THE Return to Epipo In the case of.
If he Return to Epipo For it to be an American documentary, the birth of a Hungarian article would also be part of the film, with the dramaturgy of triumph after struggles and difficulties, confrontation, the catharsis of the power of the press and justice. But this is a Hungarian documentary, and that’s how documentaries, the press and the public, and especially the judiciary, don’t work. However, the article is an inescapable factor Judit Oláh his film, with noble simplicity, because the director himself found out what happened from there, as he told us in an interview with our newspaper. While Sipos ended the long golden age with the article, in the life of Judit Oláh and other characters in the film, something important began in the article: the process of understanding and processing, of which this film is an alarming document.
Judit Oláh’s film is very personal, but not one-sided, it does not describe the epic field as a particularly dark hell or a terrifying sect – although the diabolical of the mechanisms in the background is revealing, it is absolutely clear in the film why it meant much of this experience for an army of children of the time. Although we had come a long way from the curse at that time, it was only the years of socialism, rather than partisanship, pioneering rigor and unimaginative educators, he spent three weeks in a medium created and maintained as a creative field leader and relaxed and a creative and complete spirit world. , it sounds good even to the outside, in today’s eyes. The former campers featured in the film also don’t deny that they have had lifelong positive experiences and a defining attitude at camp that they have absolutely benefited from as children and possibly as adults. Along with all of this, the camp caused a lot of trauma even to those whom Sipos never touched a finger.
Daily camp life was encoded with insidious microaggressions ranging from talking, mildly hurtful camp names to hierarchy games, and completely unequivocal abuses, from coercion to kicking, even if they were called some kind of educational thing or part of a game, a joke. The film’s highlights also make it clear that the downside to Epipo’s story was at least as much about the traumas from these systematic abuses as it was about the sexual abuse that Sipos committed on and off the camps. Sipos spent his summers in the camps and the rest of the year as a Hungarian teacher, and also had victims among his students: the potty was sure to overwhelm that one of them could not take it one day and he told his father what had happened . Sipos had to leave school immediately and was never able to hold camps again, according to the official version, because he was given such a great opportunity that such activities could no longer fit into it.
So the cover story ultimately turned out to be true: Since Sipos’s removal was reassuring enough for those involved and, perhaps in defense of the children involved, not subpoenaed in court, Sipos was not only impossible, but he actually had a great break as a youth television editor and host, and how long his television career turned out to be was already discussed at the beginning of the article. Today it is scary to see with the outer eye the connection that this man has surrounded himself with young people during practically his entire career, indeed, always in a situation in which he could have been the authority to exercise grace, the teacher to teach, to Start. How far this has extended, the victims in the film speak quite sensitively, not by the way, with shocking bluntness: a single speaker asked to cover their face, while it can be seen that sexual harassment was far from being traced, even with many actively working for processing. : The film frame is a psychodrama group therapy process.
The film is wildly diverse, but almost complete: As many victims and some skeptics play, we look at the trauma-processing work of former campers and understand something of the intricate web of social, historical, and psychological circumstances that have led to this series of horrible crimes. , someone walks away: Sipos himself. Sure, we’re not surprised, but we always hope we can take on this country, but in the end it doesn’t happen, and the frustration and space you feel over this is a bitter but powerful seasoning for the viewer experience. In addition to its diversity, Return to Epipo its virtue is that it retains its personal character in addition to exploration. The storytelling is not the main reason for this, as Judit Oláh often synthesizes the experiences of her former classmates in her storytelling, and we don’t even see her as a child in most of the film’s archival videos – the father of Judit Oláh made the recordings. The emotional process the director goes through from the first shock through outrage and fear to the processing is a horrifying, moving and visceral experience that the viewer can also feel.
The Return to Epipo can be seen on October 1 on HBO Go.
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