Episode 2: The Land Grab Chronicles
Fields of Power
Episode 2 of Fields of Power moves from the aisles of a Hungarian supermarket into the hidden machinery of a political-economic system where land, food, and power are tightly intertwined. Péter and Ian begin by tracing the products of powerful political-economic elites – Hungary’s oligarchs – whose companies dominate everything from dairy to wine. But the question they pursue is bigger: how did land become the key to their power, and why does it matter for Hungary’s future? Episode 2: The Land Grab Chronicles Episode 2 shows how oligarchs and their allies used...
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Episode 3: Fear and Loathing in Hungary
Fields of Power
In Episode 3 of Fields of Power, we head out onto Hungary’s great plains in search of people living through the country’s land battles. What we find is a landscape marked not just by farmers without land, but by fear. Episode 3: Fear and Loathing in Hungary We meet István, a shepherd in his seventies whose life was upended when his grazing land was handed to a politically connected newcomer – setting off a chain of intimidation and violence that still haunts him. His story leads us to others: the farmers of Kishantos, like Ferenc and Éva, who faced threats, assaults, and the...
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Episode 1: Of Farms & Fortune
Fields of Power
What looks like a dispute over farmland turns out to be something much larger. Episode 1 of Fields of Power begins with the story of Kishantos, an organic farm south of Budapest and opens into a wider investigation of land grabbing, power, and the rise of authoritarian politics in Hungary. Episode 1: Farms & Fortune Fields of Power begins at Kishantos, a once-celebrated organic demonstration farm and folk school in rural Hungary. In this episode, we follow the story of Éva Ácsné, who spent decades building a model of ecological farming, education, and community, only to see the land...
info_outlineIn Episode 3 of Fields of Power, we head out onto Hungary’s great plains in search of people living through the country’s land battles. What we find is a landscape marked not just by farmers without land, but by fear.
Episode 3: Fear and Loathing in Hungary
We meet István, a shepherd in his seventies whose life was upended when his grazing land was handed to a politically connected newcomer – setting off a chain of intimidation and violence that still haunts him. His story leads us to others: the farmers of Kishantos, like Ferenc and Éva, who faced threats, assaults, and the destruction of their life’s work for resisting unfair land deals. And in a village beside the prime minister’s childhood home, we learn about András Váradi, the “truth-telling shepherd” who fought the system until the night he died under circumstances many believe were never properly investigated.
As we travel through rural Hungary, we hear how these struggles are kept out of local newspapers, how journalists are discouraged from reporting, and how intimidation shapes everyday life. Noémi Gonda, a Hungarian researcher reflects on how deeply violence and fear have become embedded in the regime’s hold over the countryside.
Yet this episode is also about resistance: the stubborn refusal of farmers, activists, and ordinary villagers to be silenced. Their stories reveal not only what is happening to Hungary’s land, but what is happening to its democracy.