Movie Review: An anti-Semite learns of his Jewish roots in ‘Keep Quiet

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Glenn Kenny

Movie poster for "Keep Quiet"

HOLLYWOOD---“You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear,” says an old song about bigotry. But to hear the former far-right Hungarian politician Csanad Szegedi tell it, he was essentially a self-taught anti-Semite. In “Keep Quiet,” a documentary directed by Sam Blair and Joseph Martin, Mr. Szegedi recalls the pride he felt as a student reading far-right newspapers pushing a nationalist narrative. For his part, Mr. Szegedi disdains what he calls “cosmopolitan” Jews who insist “all Hungary gave the world was peach schnapps and baggy pants.” Then Mr. Szegedi learns an inconvenient truth: He is of Jewish lineage. His grandmother was an Auschwitz survivor. His colleagues initially suggest that this could be a good thing, inoculating the party from accusations of race hate. That strategy seems to last about half a minute, and Mr. Szegedi is expelled. He begins to embrace his Jewish identity, perhaps out of necessity. [link]