“Buda, still a Castle, a thousand years now, destroyed over and over, taken, re-taken three hundred years ago from the Turk, then occupied again, destroyed, re-taken, to this day, the last time for 11 days before it ruins were occupied again. Now we pretend it’s ours, although we have mot re-possessed it, only started to re-build it from ruins. Buda still stands, long may she stand! That’s how it goes. But delete all that! Buda, three hundred years, a thousand years, delete all that. Anything you heard second hand, hearsay, no court will accept as evidence. State your name, place and date of birth. – Yes. – Can you be more specific? – I’ll correct that: probably. – Place and date? Budapest, May 9, 1912. – Is that the truth? – No. I cannot swear to it, for I have it only on hearsay. Nothing but a rumor. In fact I couldn’t possibly remember it because that day I didn’t happen to note the place and time. So that’s where your eyewitness report on Buda begins. As Gabor Medve says: You howled, the pressure of rude air rushing into your lungs hurt, as did the alien place where you found yourself, a place that you, the viewer, had nothing to do with. But the free movie show began, and you get to act in it. These two roles are never compatible. So Benedek Both the painter, now as the viewer, step by step assembles these things: bed, window, room, mother, home, Aunt Terka, staircase, street, park, Danube-bank, Buda.”
Géza Ottlik (1985)