State of Affairs

Vámosszabadi is a small village with 1600 inhabitants in Hungary close to the Austrian border. Its arranged streets and gardens, sports courts and fishing lakes suggest the viewer that this is a peaceful, wealthy settlement. Or at least it was until a sudden event disturbed the tranquillity of the village. A new refugee camp was established just kilometres away from their border. The villagers reacted strongly and started to protest, saying this is a huge risk they don‘t want to take. An activist group was formed who have decided to do whatever it takes to get rid of the immigrants; they change the leadership of the village if they needed. This situation brought to the focus another, hidden conflict: there is two different living style mixing in the village: there are the mostly older original villagers, and the younger, wealthy newcomers who moved there recently. Finally the villagers split into two parts as well: the older ones accepted the presence of the strangers, but the newcomers got more and more angry. The refugees hardly go to the village, except when they use the local bus and a couple of them visit the mass every Sunday. But this little was enough, even too much for the villagers.