10.13130/2036-461X/16391
This article provides an overview of HBO television series in Hungary and Romania, highlighting their relation to film traditions in each country. While it might seem surprising that HBO helped create original series in countries without a long-standing tradition in quality television, the roots for this ‘wave’ of Eastern European shows can actually be traced in local film production tradition. For these shows, HBO has worked to make regional voices heard internationally. These two Eastern European neighbours belong to the same categories in terms of cinema and television production in that they represent small markets with potential for development under the support of Western media. Yet this article shows how cultural differences surface when comparing these two countries’ filmic traditions, authorial perspectives, international recognition of professionals, and domestic audiences. In Hungary, prestigious directors, as well as new television professionals and ‘outsiders' from other fields, play significant roles in HBO projects. Together, they develop a relatively wide range of genres that target a broad spectrum of audience demographics. In the case of Romania, there exists a certain continuity with New Romanian Cinema in the HBO series. The Romanian productions attempt to attract larger numbers among domestic viewers in addition to international audiences. The emergent quality television in both countries demonstrates a reliance on the small cinema tradition, while capitalizing on the success of certain academic directions and the success independent film enjoyed in Europe. Given the lack of cooperation in Eastern Europe across numerous cultural and creative industries following 1989, this article examines how HBO acts as a catalyst for Hungarian and Romanian creativity. By bringing together local resources and using its legitimacy as a major player in international television, HBO empowers local professionals to upgrade the quality of their televised content.
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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
Directorial Choices
Paths to Quality Television in Eastern Europe. Where Do Hungarian and Romanian HBO Series Come From?
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Thematic issue / Section thématique
2021-11-17
2021-09-19
2021-11-17
2022-12-30
101-123
Cinéma & Cie
Anna Keszeg
2021/11/17
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Babeș-Bolyai University
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Directorial Choices
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Paths to Quality Television in Eastern Europe. Where Do Hungarian and Romanian HBO Series Come From?
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                                                                                       Paths to Quality Television
                                                                                       in Eastern Europe.
                                                                                       Where Do Hungarian and Romanian
                                                                                       HBO Series Come From?
                                                                                       Roxana Eichel, University of Bucharest, Romania
                                                                                       Anna Keszeg, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania


                                                                                       This article provides an overview of HBO television series in Hungary and Romania,                       Keywords
                                                                                       highlighting their relation to film traditions in each country. While it might
                                                                                                                                                                                       Eastern European
                                                                                       seem surprising that HBO helped create original series in countries without a
                                                                                       long-standing tradition in quality television, the roots for this ‘wave’ of Eastern               television series
                                                                                       European shows can actually be traced in local film production tradition. For these         Professionalization in
                                                                                       shows, HBO has worked to make regional voices heard internationally. These two                           television
                                                                                       Eastern European neighbours belong to the same categories in terms of cinema               HBO quality principles
                                                                                       and television production in that they represent small markets with potential for
                                                                                                                                                                                          Filmic tradition
                                                                                       development under the support of Western media. Yet this article shows how
                                                                                       cultural differences surface when comparing these two countries’ filmic traditions,            Directorial choices
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License




                                                                                       authorial perspectives, international recognition of professionals, and domestic                                DOI
                                                                                       audiences. In Hungary, prestigious directors, as well as new television professionals   10.13130/2036-461X/16391
                                                                                       and ‘outsiders’ from other fields, play significant roles in HBO projects. Together,
                                                                                       they develop a relatively wide range of genres that target a broad spectrum of
                                                                                       audience demographics. In the case of Romania, there exists a certain continuity
                                                                                       with New Romanian Cinema in the HBO series. The Romanian productions attempt
                                                                                       to attract larger numbers among domestic viewers in addition to international
                                                                                       audiences. The emergent quality television in both countries demonstrates a
                                                                                       reliance on the small cinema tradition, while capitalizing on the success of certain
                                                                                       academic directions and the success independent film enjoyed in Europe. Given
                                                                                       the lack of cooperation in Eastern Europe across numerous cultural and creative
                                                                                       industries following 1989, this article examines how HBO acts as a catalyst for
                                                                                       Hungarian and Romanian creativity. By bringing together local resources and
                                                                                       using its legitimacy as a major player in international television, HBO empowers
                                                                                       local professionals to upgrade the quality of their televised content.




                                                                                       INTRODUCTION1
                                                                                         As Time Warner has demonstrated an inclination for convergent and
                                                                                       transatlantic media, HBO Europe proposed a new production model,
                                                                                       particularly among TV series in Eastern and South-Eastern European
                                                                                       countries. In a region where quality television has not been a focus of the
                                                                                       media, transnational circulation has lacked, and regional cooperation has
                                                                                       been scarce2, locally-produced HBO shows have mobilized a multitude


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                                                                                     
      of creative resources, in turn responding to at least three necessities of
      the television market: the creators’ need to reach both local and wider
      European demographics, the local audiences’ desire for high quality
      series made in their home countries, and the European viewers’ curiosity
      for discovering through serialized fiction a different part of the world, one
      that has been traditionally underrepresented on the small screen. This
      last market necessity had already been achieved through the circulation
      of “small cinema” productions, including prestigious Hungarian films and
      works of New Romanian Cinema. Because HBO lessened the gap between
      television and cinema3 in terms of quality and production strategies, we
      argue that the positioning of Eastern European series under the label of
      the international broadcasting giant conscientiously evokes some effects
      of the film tradition in these countries. On the multinational entertainment
      arena, HBO ‘imposes a vision of an élite TV culture on the field’,4 and this
      strategy has influenced the structure of series made in the Eastern Europe.
      Moreover, Hungary and Romania were among the first Eastern European
      countries involved in HBO projects whose adaptations of international
      formats paved the way for the creation of original series. In this sense,
      we observe how Hungarian and Romanian HBO series are reminiscent
      of an apparent paradox foregrounded in the reception of small cinema
      productions:

               These films offer a window to the social and geographical
               reality but they are not ‘about’ them, they treat geographical
               space as a backdrop only for more general explorations of
               human responsibility and emotions. Nevertheless, such films
               are usually described in the context of ‘origin’. Where they
               come from is as important as what they deal with. The two
               areas seem irrevocably connected.5

        This excerpt from a study (Desser, Falkowska, Giukin, 2015) exploring the
      concept of ‘small cinemas’ points out how Czech, Hungarian, Russian, and
      Polish cinema are inextricably linked to their original socio-geographical
      circumstances. Despite being involved in a transnational chain of
      production and distribution, the Hungarian and Romanian series discussed
      in this article are primarily the result of already extant, domestic filmic
      traditions. These pre-existent domestic cinematic heritages then come
      to be reshaped with international resources made accessible by HBO and
      influences of newcomers in TV production.
        Scholarship acknowledging Eastern Europe’s role as a participant in
      global cultural exchanges after 1989 has long been focused on its consumer
      status. In his seminal work The Cultural Industries, David Hesmondhalgh
      not only draws attention towards the ‘unfettered marketisation’6 of
      culture and the media in the post-communist age, but also questions the
      ‘optimistic projections of benign globalization’.7 The emergence of original,
      Eastern European serialized television circulated on a transnational


102                            Eichel, Keszeg, Paths to Quality Television in Eastern Europe

scale marks the redefining of positions and expectations in the field
of television production. Such shifts in standards and aims ought to be
considered through certain derivations of Bourdieu’s sociological analysis
of the field of cultural production, especially when it comes to recent
reinterpretations in media studies.8 In any case, HBO’s initiatives in the
field of Eastern European television series can be regarded as a significant
factor in redefining the regional ‘space of possibles’,9 to put it in Bourdieu’s
terms. Although the French theorist’s influential work is most frequently
applied to study national, social spaces (and not multinational media
enterprises),10 some of the concepts developed in his work prove to be useful
when approximating the positions of agents in recent Eastern television
production. Therefore, references to the concept of small cinema as a
formative influence and Bourdieusian ideas related to cultural production
underpin our overview of HBO Hungarian and Romanian TV series. While
this is not an attempt at designing a possible model for the structure of
cinema and television cultural spheres in Hungary and Romania, we
contest that instrumentalizing readings of Bourdieu help delineate both
the trajectory of the power relations and capital dynamics developed before
and after HBO’s presence as a major stakeholder interacting with the local
Romanian and Hungarian talents.



Changes in Hungarian Television
and Cinema Culture after 1989
  In 1991, HBO becomes the first foreign cable television company to
broadcast in Hungary. However, it is not until 2007 that HBO’s role
extended beyond a content provider. Only in the second half of the 1990s
the broadcasting group starts to invest in the production of original
Hungarian content.11 The steps taken by HBO in developing local creative
entreprises typically include an initial test run of original scripted content,
a later production of transnational formats, and a subsequent return to the
original scripted content. This development involves a smooth process of
cultural imperialism and gradual localization combined with hybridization of
formats, audiovisual language, and talent development.12 While the strategy
employed by the company can be either criticized as a form of cultural
hegemony13 or praised as an emancipatory process of serial audiovisual
content creation,14 we must acknowledge that the implementation of the
quality TV format in the local market was a risky dealing and entailed
systematic creative labor, as well as an understanding of local market
dynamics, audiences, and production principles of other cultural industries.
Balázs Varga comments on transformations in Eastern European television
culture after the fall of socialist regimes framed according to a master
narrative that he summarises as follows: ‘the direction of change leads


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      from imported content to original domestic production’.15 Yet Varga claims
      that this process of change does not unfold linearly or coherently. From the
      point of view of production, HBO responded to double standards generated
      by the attempt to reconcile different intentions: preserving the traits of the
      HBO brand image, discovering a unique path in integrating local knowledge
      into international generic formats, and appeasing the expectations of local
      audiences.16 In such a way, the creation of HBO television series in Hungary
      synthesized the influences of three cultural industries with strong local
      traditions: the domestic movie industry, the Hungarian theatrical culture,
      and more broadly, the local television production enterprise. Given the scope
      of this claim, this article focuses on the influences of local movie making
      on HBO Hungarian series and leaves the question concerning theatrical
      and televisual influences to be a potential area for further investigation.
         During the three decades since the launch of HBO in Hungary, the domestic
      movie industry was marked by the reorganization of the studio system and
      the setup of a predominately politically-controlled state funding system.17
      By the same token, the arrival of commercial cable TV companies,18 which
      had a major impact on the screen culture of local audiences, largely
      influenced this process. Before the regime change, the official Hungarian
      movie scene was dominated by censored filmic content, excluding two kinds
      of movie formats: on the one hand, auteur films involving socio-political-
      cultural criticism and targeting elite audience groups (cf. the internationally
      recognized Hungarian filmmakers, Béla Tarr, Miklós Jancsó, István Szabó,
      Károly Makk, Márta Mészáros, etc.), and on the other, popular generic
      blockbuster movies aimed at mass audiences. After the regime change,
      redefining popular film content became a significant trend that surfaced
      through the creation of popular comedies and midcult heritage films, e.g.,
      works by directors like Róbert Koltai, András Kern, Gábor Herendi, Gergely
      Fonyó, Péter Rudolf, etc.. Similarly, the auteur tradition played a major
      role in reorganizing cinema studies at the University of Theater and Film
      Arts in Budapest (UTFA) focusing on preparing directors for experimenting
      with art film. This tendency is well-represented by the members of the
      so-called ‘Young Hungarian Cinema’ (Ferenc Török, György Pálfi, Szabolcs
      Hajdu, Dániel Erdélyi, and Gábor Fischer). All of whom were affiliates of
      the same promotion stature at the University of Theater and Film Arts. In
      order to accurately sum up the achievements of the last three decades,
      it is necessary to note that Hungarian small cinema19 garnered key
      international recognition, culminating in László Nemes Jeles’s Oscar for
      Best Foreign Language Film in 2016. In Hungary, the local response to
      small cinema production was moderate: not as consequential as in the
      Czech Republic and not as insignificant as in Romania.20 Besides the
      stakeholders encouraging popular movie formats and the young auteur
      filmmakers cultivating directorial styles acquired at the university, a new
      generation of so-called outsiders also appeared on the scene. These
      newcomers were influenced by international drama formats and dramatic


104                            Eichel, Keszeg, Paths to Quality Television in Eastern Europe

storytelling (Benedek Fliegauf, Zsombor Dyga, etc.).21 A Bourdieusian
conceptualization of the Hungarian movie industry of the period reveals
that the above mentioned tendencies can actually be categorized according
to the four poles of Bourdieu’s autonomous fields of artistic creation, the
critically acclaimed avant-garde (some of the young Hungarian filmmakers
and members of the auteur tradition), movies with strong cultural publicity
(award-winning movies made by directors descending from the auteur
tradition), mass productions (directors interested in comedies or other
popular generic formats), and the outcasts.22 HBO’s talent seeking activity
was met by representatives of all these local traditions and newly formed
professional groups.23



Comparing Apples to Oranges.
From Original Domestic Production
to Originally Imported Content Creation
  From the perspective of production strategies, the difficulty with the
aforementioned four filmic categories lies in the fact that the field has had
to reconcile the HBO brand with its own avant-garde position in serialized
tv creation.24 At the end of the 1990s, this position had not yet appeared
in Eastern Europe because, as Varga stated, HBO’s history in the region
as a content provider cemented the public’s perception of the company
as a premium cable service, and not as a producer of quality TV series.25
HBO’s choice to work with representatives of ‘young Hungarian cinema’26
for the first locally produced and original television series attempts at
negotiating instances of avant-garde from two different cultural contexts:
the domestic cinematic milieu and the international network background
attached to HBO’s presence. An overview of the team involved in the
creation of Született lúzer (“Born Losers”, 2007-2008) reveals that directors
who were UTFA27 alumni had a strong predisposition for experimenting
and maintaining control over the creative process. In fact, they conceived
the unusual structure of the morbid anthology series, which consisted of
a number of 12-minute episodes, screened in pairs during primetime on
Sundays. These series, governed by the aesthetics of a rural freak show,
follow the lives of peasant characters who find themselves in absurd,
morbid, and ridiculous situations. In this first example of original content
production, HBO remained practically insignificant in terms of creative
control. Considering both its production and development, Született lúzer
presents itself to be much more closely aligned to the standards and
production culture of the Hungarian film industry at the time than to HBO’s
production model.28 There are, however, some of the thematic elements in
the show, namely its curiosity for the figure of the freak, that associate it
with one of HBO’s most controversial productions, Carnivàle (2003-2005).


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                                                                                     
      Even though Born Loser is regarded as a failure, it remains significant
      in that its creators later became important personalities in Hungary’s
      television industry. Their careers went from an avant-garde position to
      acquiring strong cultural publicity.
        After its poorly received sketch of the rural Hungarian landscape in
      Született lúzer, HBO struck gold with Társas játék (an adaptation of the
      Israeli format Matay nitnashek, 2007), released in 2011. Following the satiric
      depiction of rural Hungarian realities dealing with poverty, marginality, and
      liminality, HBO relocates to Budapest where a large number typical HBO
      consumers live, namely cultural creatives and the representatives of urban
      upper-middle-class. The production of the series adopts a novel regional
      approach in lieu of a country-specific strategy of HBO, in particular the
      adoption of transnational formats. This moment represents the turning
      point of HBO’s local strategy marked by the creative control over the
      domestic production manifested by format adaptations and transmission
      of the productional prowess of the media powerhouse.29 The series was
      also adopted by the channel in Romania and in the Czech Republic. Before
      Társas játék, Gábor Herendi and Gergely Fonyó direct domestic box-office
      hits in 2002, 2004, 2008 and 2009.30 The majority of their filmography
      represents the tradition of the Hungarian popular comedy, with one
      exception only: Herendi’s Magyar vándor, a historical comedy that pokes
      fun at elements of popular nationalism and national mythology. Herendi’s
      experience further includes a television series production that precedes his
      collaboration with HBO: between 2002-2003, Herendi directs the Hungarian
      sitcom Tea, and over the following years, he continues to work with the
      genres of romance, comedy, and dramedy in serial or feature film formats.
      While ‘from the perspective and standards of quality television, it could
      have seemed strange and improper that HBO chose a romantic comedy
      as its first local adaptation’,31 the reception of the series underscores the
      professionalism and the higher quality of the production compared to other
      domestic romance TV shows in terms of dialogue, acting performances,
      locations, and storyline.32
        For the two successive format adaptations, Terápia (In Treatment) and
      Aranyélet (Golden Life), HBO selects directors with strong cultural and
      public ties (for Terápia, the local adaptation of the Israeli format BeTipul/
      In Treatment, 2012-2017) and representatives of the outsider perspective
      with proven skill in independent and low-budget filmmaking/ production
      (for Aranyélet, a loose remake of the Finnish series Helppo elämä,
      distributed internationally with the title Golden Life, 2015-2018). The
      second adaptation of an Israeli format after When Shall We Kiss, Terápia
      is marked by the contribution of directors presenting the established
      legacy of the prestigious Hungarian school of filmmaking. Four directors
      contributed to the series: Ildikó Enyedi, Attila Gigor, Orsi Nagypál and
      Mihály Schwechtje (for one episode). In this instance, the influence of the
      UTFA school is obviously present—Enyedi, Gigor, and Schwechtje are both


106                            Eichel, Keszeg, Paths to Quality Television in Eastern Europe

alumni and current teachers at the university. Yet, the new dynamics of
the Hungarian movie industry are particularly formative in Orsi Nagypál’s
career, in that she earned a degree from the London Film School33 after
quitting advertising. Given the adaptation of Terápia was produced in all
the four Eastern European countries on the HBO map at that time (Czech
Republic, Poland, Romania, Hungary), the series tackles questions of
cultural proximity in the case of transnational formats34 and shows how
critically acclaimed domestic directorial practices translate into format-
guided logic. The fact that Enyedi, a sort of grande dame of contemporary
Hungarian cinema, plays a decisive role in the creation of the series,
is in itself a guarantee of the show’s quality.35 Issues of psychology,
treatment, therapy, the representations of psychoanalysis in Central
and Eastern Europe were formerly present in Enyedi’s work, choosing
her as director has a strong rationale.36 The works of all four directors
discuss the inquiry on mental well-being, the psychological implications
of ordinary conversations, investigating codes of normality, the socio-
cultural contexts of anxiety. The filmic language of Enyedi’s film, On Body
and Soul (2017),37 directed at the same time as the third season of Terápia,
displays a corresponding artful interest in human gestures, faces, and
nonverbal signs, which have consistently characterized Enyedi’s work. The
actual therapy scenes and the representations of behavioural disorders
in both the movie and the series illustrate how the TV show contributes to
the discursive implementation of the therapeutical metaphor as a social,
cultural construct in Enyedi’s filmic language. The series and the movie
present a wide range of therapists, from the series main character played by
Pál Mácsai to the superficial and pedantic yet frivolous female psychologist
from On Body and Soul, played by Réka Tenki. Through the collaboration
between highly prestigious actors, directors and screenwriters, Terápia
works to bring about the cultural relocation of therapy itself.
  HBO’s Hungarian-made shows play an important role in the transnational
and cultural circulation of trends in the Hungarian film industry. Golden
Life gives rise to the recognition of a new directorial generation—Zsombor
Dyga and Áron Mátyássy—that had previously been limited to low budget
formats. The professional paths of these two directors turn out to be fairly
different: Mátyássy emerges from the UTFA as a member of the second
Simó-class while Dyga starts off as an independent outsider without a degree
in filmmaking.38 Nonetheless, both directors begin their HBO collaboration
with a degree of familiarity for low budget solutions, an interest in generic
formats, and previous work experience in TV. The work of these two
directors is significant in that it evidences a process of professionalization
in TV series creation that culminates in the hybridization of audio-visual and
cultural formats. In such cases, Bourdieu’s categories are not applicable
because we observe a mix of strategies and an attraction between the
different poles of the industry’s subfield of cultural creation. That is, the
creators can be assimilated into the avant-garde current (cf. Mátyássy’s


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                                                                                     
      debut movie, Utolsó idők – 2009, or Dyga’s numerous experiments in film
      genre39), but still maintain their status as culturally acclaimed directors
      with a recognizable filmic language. In this way, it is precisely because
      of their experience in TV series production and their experimentation that
      the commercial mass movie production does not appear foreign to them.
      When analysing Dyga’s career, it is clear that Dyga’s ability to overcome his
      position as an outsider proves to be instrumental. Moreover, if we consider
      film categories, the never too sharp, yet persistent distinction between
      auteur cinema and genre-oriented movies reveals itself to be outdated, as
      Golden Life mixes thriller, crime, action, and even chamber drama. In fact,
      the series has been compared to Breaking Bad, The Sopranos in addition to
      film noir and a well-known Hungarian crime drama from 1982, Dögkeselyű
      (directed by Ferenc András).40 Such comparisons reaffirm Golden Life as an
      example of transnational and transcultural hybridity, mixing humor, action,
      and drama in order to depict the moral inconsistencies of contemporary
      Hungarian society.
         It should be noted that this article’s overview of filmic influences in
      Hungarian-HBO productions overlooks the role of showrunners and
      scriptwriters in the content creation. Nevertheless, the role of a showrunner,
      like Gábor Krigler, the creative producer of HBO Hungary and co-creator of
      Született lúzer, Terápia, and Golden Life or the impact of a head writer like
      István Tasnádi (Terápia, Golden Life) illustrate the sociological complexities
      of a creative industry undergoing a complete restructuring process.



      From the New Wave in Romanian
      Cinema to HBO Romanian Television
      Series: An Attempt at Regaining
      Lost Domestic Audiences
        The lack of a long-standing tradition in the production of Romanian
      television series targeting either domestic or transnational audiences has
      triggered Romanian directors’ and production companies’ eagerness to
      collaborate with Western European or American professionals in order to
      acquire new skills, to adapt to more demanding and diverse audiences,
      as well as build confidence in locally developed film techniques. After
      1989 and the fall of the Iron Curtain, Romanian audiences, witnessing the
      liberalization of the media culture, become increasingly inclined to prefer
      Western media productions over local ones. This tendency is a consequence
      of the collapse in audiences’ support to the national media which had been
      employed as a vehicle of the political power during the socialist period. Over
      three decades later, locally produced, quality television is still developing
      rather slowly. In fact, the majority of the television series made in Romania


108                            Eichel, Keszeg, Paths to Quality Television in Eastern Europe

are mainstream comedies or soap opera romances with a specific, localized
target audience. Romanian audiences’ preference for American films and
television series is a well-known characteristic of media consumption in
the country, thus marking a difference from the inclinations of viewers in
other Central and Eastern European countries, such as Hungary, the Czech
Republic, or Poland, where the interest for national cinema and television
shows is more developed.
   Though HBO first becomes available in Romania in 1998, the company
does not invest in local production until over a decade later, preferring to
broadcast international blockbuster films. The promotional offer that first
appears with the launch of HBO in Romania features a film selection that
is eloquent for (eloquent for does not make sense here, perhaps ‘indicative
of’) the expectations the giant broadcaster had about the tastes of an
audience in a post-socialist country: Dirty Dancing (dir. Emile Ardolino,
1987), Disclosure (dir. Barry Levinson, 1992), Batman Returns (dir. Tim
Burton, 1992), Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven (1992), Johnny Mnemonic (dir.
Robert Longo, 1995), as well as pop music concerts such as the Spice
Girls’ Live in Istanbul (1997). Sensationalism,41 highly imaginative popular
productions, special effects, narrative twists, science-fiction or horror
movie tropes – all approached with technical professionalism and visual
sophistication – are among the elements in these films that had been absent
from Romanian cinema and television not only during the socialist era, but
also amidst the economically harsh years of transition to capitalism and
democracy. Therefore, this preference for American movies stems from the
deprivation of cultural capital and the desire for unrestricted consumption
of commodities that had for many years symbolized the ‘forbidden fruit’.
This steady fixation for American mainstream culture, entertainment, and
lifestyle becomes an integrated part of a rapidly emerging post-1989 social
habitus.42 It even surfaces in institutional positions of a ‘national’ habitus:
the Romanian President himself officially welcomed pop superstar
Michael Jackson to the country in 1992 and attended the inauguration of
McDonald’s in Bucharest in 1995. These signs of cultural import and ‘self-
inflicted imperialism’43 add to a more general and pervasive change in
public policies, as Romania made efforts to join Western-led international
structures and organizations, to assert its kinship to the Western world,
and distance itself from the former Soviet domination and its cultural
legacy.
   Despite this massive enthusiasm for embracing American popular culture
and entertainment, Romanian cinema and television series did not start to
imitate structures and strategies of the American productions (or if they
did, the enterprise was never managed very successfully, due to the lack of
financial means and dearth of experienced and talented professionals who
might have been interested in such endeavours).
   In terms of fictional serial production and television drama, Romania
evolves quite differently than other Central and Eastern European countries,


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                                                                                     
      such as Poland, where the explosion of domestic TV series is understood
      to be a response to the influence of conventional American storytelling and
      aesthetics.44 Instead, film directors begin to cultivate their attachment to
      the values of realism, minimalism (especially, in terms of technical means
      of cinematography), and the rhetorics of critical interrogation focused
      on the post-communist transition. These directions occur in fictional
      constructions inclined towards social critique, reflexivity, and discrete uses
      of allegory.45 These tendencies lead to a flourishing trend known as New
      Romanian Cinema (NRC) or New Romanian Wave, a phenomenon which
      brings international recognition for several productions and their creators.
      The success of NRC is mainly reflected in the prestigious European prizes
      awarded to its films (see Appendix). Therefore, while fictional television
      production does not change significantly upon the arrival of HBO in
      Romania until 2010, the first decade of the new milennium is defined by
      the ascension of Romanian cinema and its young representatives. Some
      of the directors who are labeled as New Wave filmmakers include: Cristi
      Puiu, Cristian Mungiu, Corneliu Porumboiu, Radu Muntean, Tudor Giurgiu,
      who would soon be followed by new names earning praise at international
      festivals since 2001.
        These directors went from the status of outsiders (most of them
      educated in Western universities and virtually unknown in their home
      country) struggling to finance their projects independently on low budgets
      to critically acclaimed professionals. This change of status has had many
      consequences on the development of Romanian film, among which is the
      development of new projects and financing sources,46 as young Romanian
      directors founded their own production companies: Cristian Mungiu is
      the director of Mobra Films, Cristi Puiu’s films are produced by his own
      company Mandragora, Tudor Giurgiu leads LibraFilm and is also the founder
      of Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF). Since 2018, Mobra Films
      has been the main Romanian partner for the production of HBO series
      made in the country: this collaboration shows that the achievements of
      the New Romanian Cinema have a long-lasting impact and can lead to
      structural transformations in domestic production and multinational
      creative projects.
        The international recognition of Romanian directors has created
      a new impetus in the field and became part of an alternative path to
      ‘Americanization’ in the post-socialist phase of the professionalization
      of Romanian television and film production. Therefore, co-productions
      such as Hackerville (2018) or Tuff Money (Bani negri, 2020) capitalize on
      the experience and techniques of the New Romanian Wave, even though
      script, storytelling, and marketing strategies are different: the HBO series
      are more focused on local narratives, on using locations in historically
      diverse regions (i.e. Timișoara, Piatra-Neamț) while bringing into play the
      transnational circulation of forms and hybridization of genres. Shadows
      (Umbre, 2014-2019), The Silent Valley (Valea Mută, 2018), Hackerville, and


110                            Eichel, Keszeg, Paths to Quality Television in Eastern Europe

Tuff Money (Bani negri) are all based on plotlines typical of crime fiction
or noir, but each one develops, on the side, a particular mix of stylistic/
generic elements, such as comedy, dark/absurd humor, cybersecurity-
themed speculative fiction, realist portrayals of post-communist trauma,
commentary on gender awareness and its empowerment in highly
conservative, patriarchal communities. One may grasp a certain continuity
with tendencies present in Romanian New Wave classics such as Stuff
and Dough (Marfa și banii, Cristi Puiu, 2001), The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu
(Moartea domnului Lăzărescu, Cristi Puiu, 2005), The Paper Will Be Blue
(Hârtia va fi albastră, Radu Muntean, 2006), 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2
Days (4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile, Cristian Mungiu, 2007), Aurora (Cristi
Puiu, 2013), which propose a cinematic language that relies on detailed
accuracy, camera angles that hint at a questioning of the nature of truth
and knowledge, and a refusal of post-communist transition stereotypes
and nostalgic biased views. As director Cristi Puiu claimed, the purpose
of his films was to ‘erase the boundary between documentary and fiction,
by reconciling spectatorial and creator positions’.47 But despite this
statement, it can be argued that some features of the Romanian New Wave
have found common territories with the realm of crime fiction series: dark
humor, a bleak view on society as a whole and on individuals themselves,
the shadow of corruption lurking over the individual. Additionally, the topics
of discrimination and abuse have also been included in films by Cristian
Mungiu, Corneliu Porumboiu, and Cristi Puiu as well as in the general
outline of recent series produced by HBO in Romania. The messages that
the films and the series convey bring to mind some remarks about small
cinemas, in that the message sent by TV series produced in Eastern Europe
seem to develop connections with the films of the region:

          In the 1990s and 2000s, small cinemas coming from various
          countries, often underprivileged ones or the countries under
          oppression, give spectators a privileged look into the lives of
          other people and other cultures. The directors of these films
          present reality in their countries in an unbiased way and give
          access to the nitty-gritty elements of their existence.48

  Therefore, it is interesting to note that by the time HBO decided to
initiate the production of television series in Romania, the New Wave
had changed its position within the field: most directors had moved from
being independent and underfunded to critically acclaimed filmmakers
with prestigious international prizes and had therefore become part of a
consecrated avant-garde, to cite Bourdieu again.
  In hindsight, some of the key topics or cinematic stylistic traits in the films
of the Romanian New Wave had been to some degree employed previously
by directors in the 1970s and 1980s, in an era where censorship would
eradicate any type of realist approach other than socialist realism fueled
by the ideological constraints imposed by the ruling Party and by dictator


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                                                                                     
      Nicolae Ceaușescu. Even under these circumstances, films by Lucian
      Pintilie (Reconstituirea, 1968), Alexandru Tatos (Secvențe, 1982), Dan Pița
      (Concurs, 1982) managed to develop a subtly metaphorical realism which
      seemed tolerable for the authorities but engaging enough for the audience
      to decode political irony and contemplate absurd or tragic events set against
      the background of daily life in a socialist country. However, this descent did
      not make New Wave films very popular among Romanian audiences, who
      remained faithful to Hollywood productions during the 1990s. In a 2003
      short article, Cristi Puiu eloquently summarizes the factors contributing to
      Romanians’ choice of films to watch:

               In Romania, going to the cinema costs more than a citizen with
               an average income can afford, and when one eventually does
               go out to see a movie, they will definitely choose an American
               production. If by any chance they go to a Romanian film and
               they do not fall asleep in their seats, they will leave the theatre
               dissatisfied and outraged. Paying a ticket in order to watch a
               Romanian film is either a display of one’s prosperity, a whim,
               or even an evidence of masochism.49

         These claims may seem drastic, but they do reflect Romanian social
      realities of the 2000s from an economic perspective. The remarks are also
      accurate in encapsulating the perception that, for the average Romanian
      viewer, television as well as cinema have been since 1989 the epitome of
      difference and alterity: movie watching comprised the need to participate,
      through the audiovisual experience, in ‘something else’ beyond an artistic
      expression of their day-to-day reality. Under such circumstances, realism
      in Romanian art cinema became an avant-garde enterprise, in the sense
      that it was regarded as eccentric in relation to the preferences of average
      viewers. Puiu’s opinion is echoed in Romanian critic Doru Pop’s analysis
      of the psychological impact of these films: ‘Romanian New Wave cinema
      has built its identity, by replicating a traumatic world and a traumatic
      experience, by projecting onto the screen a masochistic desire for reliving
      pain. […] [T]he New Wave films bring us again and again in front of a reality
      which otherwise we might choose to avoid’.50
         Pop’s interpretation, however, seems to be founded on the implicit
      postulate that the aesthetic experience involves, on the one hand, ‘re-
      living’ events, and on the other hand, that the realities familiar to the
      viewer (because they are more or less part of a generic, commonplace
      Romanian experience of reality) can be avoided. Both sets of remarks
      are based on the assumption that the Romanian audience has difficulties
      in discerning between perceived reality and an artistic representation
      of reality. The belief that the national audience is not very educated is a
      rather widespread perspective. Bogdan Mirică (director of Shadows and
      of the 2016 feature film Dogs – original title:Câini) was part of creative
      teams in original projects made for the national television market as well


112                            Eichel, Keszeg, Paths to Quality Television in Eastern Europe

as in international productions. He asserts that the slow development of
Romanian serial productions has to do with the condescending views that
many professionals in the industry hold about the public:

          To be honest, I have not really seen many Romanian impressive
          series. Except for those produced by HBO, where quality always
          comes first, the others seem to prioritize quantity and the
          audience. To me it seems that they always start with the wrong
          assumption that the audience is not educated and therefore
          they must be provided with frivolous TV series: simplistic
          narrative structures, simple language, no production value
          — how would Romanians know what that means? But things
          could not be more different than this view. Romanians do
          watch international series. With the era of easy Internet access
          came the massive openness and curiosity towards everything,
          including pop culture. You cannot trick your audience. […]
          Romanian television series can evolve only if producers start
          to treat their audience respectfully and to invest more in quality
          screenwriting and production strategies.51

  The major role of HBO as an agent promoting quality shows in areas
where the concept was absent from the industry’s praxis is thus revealed
by professionals themselves. The international broadcasting company
challenged the local habitus by proposing different approaches to seriality
than those recurring in mainstream domestic production.



Romanian HBO Series and their
Directors: the Transfer of
Expertise as Symbolic Capital
  Despite shortcomings such as those mentioned by Mirică, Romania was
the first among Eastern European countries to develop a locally produced
HBO series. În derivă (2010-2012)52 was the Romanian adaptation of the
famous Israeli show BeTipul/In Treatment. The series was directed
by three experienced filmmakers, Constantin Popescu, Adrian Sitaru,
and Titus Muntean. Although it featured famous Romanian actors (for
example, the protagonist, psychotherapist Andrei Poenaru, was played by
Marcel Iureș, famous and appreciated by the local audience for starring
in Hollywood films), the series was considered a disappointment because
its representations of relationships seemed somehow disconnected
from Romanian social realities. În derivă was regarded as excessively
complacent in imitating the Israeli and American versions. Even though
the topic of psychotherapy was familiar to urban upper-middle class and
the script lacked authenticity in terms of narrative and expressive choices,
În derivă was remarkable for its visual and marketing quality, as well as


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                                                                                      
      innovative in proposing a new dramatic format and dynamic dialogues.
      Therefore, it functioned as a sign that such endeavours were possible with
      locally produced series, and that the industry was prepared to take a step
      forward.
         This step was followed by the adaptation of another Israeli series, Matay
      nitnashek (also adapted in Hungary as Társas játék): Rămâi cu mine kept
      Constantin Popescu on board as director. Mihai Bauman, the co-director,
      previously made a documentary film (Groapa – The Pit, 2001), some short
      films, worked as a casting director in Romania and abroad, and directed
      TV series for commercial television. Constantin Popescu already directed
      not only Terápia, the first HBO adaptation series in Romania, but also two
      critically acclaimed feature films, Principles of Life (Principii de viață, 2010)
      and The portrait of the Fighter as a Young Man (Portretul luptătorului la
      tinerețe, 2010). Furthermore, he had co-directed Tales from the Golden
      Age (Amintiri din comunism, 2009), a series of stories about the Communist
      era in Romania. The first two Romanian HBO series were relatively well
      received by domestic audiences.
         Things changed with the next fictional production HBO developed in
      Romania. Shadows, another adaptation based on an Australian show Small
      Time Gangster (2011). In this case, the series’ take on the original show
      was focused on changing its genre conventions, switching from comedy
      and soap opera conventions to ‘a mix of crime, social realism and irony’.53
      The directors collaborating on the first part of this project were Bogdan
      Mirică and Igor Cobileanski, and after the second season, Shadows was
      directed by Mirică alone, as Cobileanski’s creative input migrated towards
      another HBO Romanian series, Hackerville.
         Mirică started his career as a screenwriter (he collaborated on the
      script for a popular comedy show, Las Fierbinți, 2012-) and a director of
      short films (Bora Bora, 2011), thereby obtaining independent production
      experience in mainstream television. His position seems similar to those of
      Hungarian directors trying to explore several subfields of the industry. Igor
      Cobileanschi brought on screen humoristic as well as gloomy and absurd
      perspectives in stories set in the Republic of Moldova, his native country with
      strong ties to not only Romanian culture, but also to Russian influences.
      Eastern Business (2013), his most famous film before becoming involved
      in HBO projects, is a comedy depicting the desperate attempts of a music
      teacher and his friends to overcome poverty through illegal business. With
      the attempts gone awry, the main character contemplates his dramatic
      fate in prison, as bitter humor permeates the end of the film.
         Mirică and Cobileanschi’s collaboration on Shadows features gloomy
      characters, shocking violence, and a witty use of coarse language.
      Cobileanschi’s ties to the New Romanian Cinema is reflected in his 2016
      collaboration with Corneliu Porumboiu, whose script idea and characters lie
      at the core of The Unsaved (Limita de jos a cerului). Between the two seasons
      of the HBO show, Mirică directs Dogs, a thriller granted the FIPRESCI award


114                             Eichel, Keszeg, Paths to Quality Television in Eastern Europe

at the 69th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. The film echoes
Mirică’s spatial mannerisms in that settings in Bora Bora, Câini along with
in some key scenes in Shadows are shot in immense desolate plains, which
create strong contrasts with the tensions of the human clashes, chases,
and crimes crossing those territories; this type of perspective offers the
viewer a chance to explore a meditation on violence, corruption as well as
atavic attachment to rural land. Mirică and Cobileanschi’s recent works
indirectly show that not only does Shadows foster a different atmosphere, a
greater level of authenticity, and connection to the Romanian audience, but
it also opens new possibilities for its directors, giving them the opportunity
to consolidate their positions within the artistic field.
   Another noteworthy HBO series within the context of this article is The
Silent Valley (Valea Mută, 2016), based on the Norwegian thriller show
Øyevitne (2014). The director of this project, Marian Crișan, is best known
for Megatron, which gained the Palme d’Or award for short film at the
Cannes Film Festival in 2008. A representative of New Romanian Cinema,
Crișan’s filmography often handles the topics of marginality, migration,
and addiction. In light of this, it makes sense Crișan ends up directing a
series that challenges stereotypes related to homosexuality, gender roles,
and ethnicity issues.
   Through elements such as directorial choices, co-production services,
thematic areas, and stylistic choices, Romanian HBO series reveal how
the local industry benefits greatly from the expertise and recognition of
the New Romanian Wave. Professionals’ resentment and frustration with
domestic audiences preferring American movies transforms into a creative
formatting that blends the high-quality standards promoted by HBO with
the interest for local stories that recall the realist, critical, and sometimes
dark turn in New Romanian Cinema.



Conclusion
  HBO Eastern European productions from Hungary and Romania are
strongly related to the traditions and country-specific circumstances after
1989. For Hungary, in particular, the Bourdieusian model to approach
the field of cultural production theory seems to adequately explain the
predilections of film directors in terms of why they adopt specific artistic
styles and how they treat specific genres. In fact, such openness towards
artistic experimentation is rather significant in a domestic industry where
post-socialist freedom of expression has been thoroughly explored in
theatrical, cinematic, and television works. Accordingly, HBO projects
could benefit from this interest in professionalization and international
recognition that had already been formed. In Romania, the absence of
quality television was contrasted by the international success gained by
Romanian New Wave film directors who ironically were not very popular


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                                                                                    
      among Romanian audiences. HBO initiatives established a connection to
      the achievements in the domestic field of cinematic production and have so
      far contributed to further change in Eastern European creative industries.
      Further research on the topic of Eastern European TV series and their
      integration into transnational circuits could elaborate on the structure of
      the local fields of cultural production and show in detail how the national
      and regional industries interact with the globally dominant players of the
      television market.




116                           Eichel, Keszeg, Paths to Quality Television in Eastern Europe

Notes
  1
      The research presented here has been financed by the research project DETECt — Detecting
Transcultural Identity in European Popular Crime Narratives (Horizon 2020, 2018–2021) [Grant
agreement number 770151].
   2
      See Dona Kolar-Panov, ‘Television and cultural cooperation in Southeastern Europe’ in The
Emerging Creative Industries in Southeastern Europe, ed. By Nada Švob-Đokić, (Zagreb: Institute for
International Relations, 2005), p. 71: ‘Co-production of television programs with a cultural content
does not happen very often in SEE, and there is no established protocol for exchange of cultural
programs, with very few cultural events shown outside their country of origin’.
   3
     See The Essential HBO Reader, ed. by Gary R. Edgerton and Jeffrey P. Jones (Lexington: Kentucky
University Press 2008).
   4
     In the same vein, Janet McCabe and Kim Akass argue that ‘HBO structures a particular restricted
field of cultural TV production, set against the mainstream network model – driven as it is by
advertising revenue and ratings – which has, in turn, not only normalised what we’ve come to think of
as important television work (critical acclaim, nominations and awards), but also kept these beliefs
and practices of TV in circulation’, in their article ‘HBO and the Aristocracy of Contemporary TV
Culture: affiliations and legitimatising television culture, post-2007’, in Mise au point, no. 10/2018,
Online since 15 January 2018, connection on 6 May 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/
map/2472; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/map.2472.
   5
      Small Cinemas in Global Markets. Genres, Identities, Narratives, ed. by David Desser, Janina
Falkowska, Lenuta Giukin (Lanham and London: Lexington Books, 2015), p. XI.
   6
     David Hesmondhalgh, The Cultural Industries, Third Edition (London: SAGE, 2013), pp. 147-149.
   7
     Ibidem.
   8
     Janet McCabe and Kim Akass list a comprehensive set of recent perspectives on Bourdieu in the
article cited above.
   9
      Pierre Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1993), p. 64.
   10
      See David Hesmondhalgh, ‘Bourdieu, the media and cultural production’, in Media, Culture and
Society, Vol. 28(2), 2006, p.222: ‘A related problem in The Rules of Art is that Bourdieu has nothing to
say about the domination of cultural production by multinational entertainment corporations across
all cultural industries’.
   11
      The first Hungarian HBO production is a television series Született lúzer, (2007–2009). The show
qualifies as a failure and, in fact, is not even included in the HBO library. The year 2009 sees the
first Hungarian HBO documentary, Miss Plastic. This work, directed by Dávid Spáh, documents the
beauty contest of plastic surgery obsessed women. The second decade of the new millennium brings
continuity to fictional and documentary content creation. This article focuses on fictionalized serial
contents. HBO Hungary subsequently produced the following series: Társas játék (2011–2013), based
on When Will We Kiss/Matay Nitnashek (Israel 10, 2007–2008), Terápia (2012–2017), based on In
Treatment/Be tipul (JCS, Scheleg, 2005–2008), Golden Life/Aranyélet (2015–2017), based on Easy
Living/Helppo elämä (Moskito Television, 2009–2011). In the following the titles of the series will be
quoted in Hungarian when there is no international circulation, in English and Hungarian for cases of
international circulation and in Hungarian when the English title is the same for various franchised
national versions.


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                                                                                                                                                  
APPENDIX:
The following table lists the awards received by Hungarian and Romanian directors involved in HBO series.

DIRECTOR            HBO SERIES DIRECTED OR FEATURE FILM PROJECTS                                              SHORT FILM PROJECTS DEVELOPED IN
                    WRITTEN BY             DEVELOPED IN THE SAME PERIOD                                       THE SAME PERIOD
Péter Bartos        Született lúzer, 2007–2009                                                                Ólomidő, 2005–

                                                                                                              Summertime, 2009; A süllyedő falu, 2007; Every Day a
Márton szirMai      Született lúzer, 2007
                                                                                                              New Challenge, 2006; Szalontüdő, 2006.

BarnaBás tóth       Született lúzer, 2007                  Camembert Rose, 2009                               Meglepetés, 2007; Egy szavazat, 2006;

GáBor Fischer       Született lúzer, 2008–2009             Montecarlo!, 2004


GyörGy PálFi        Született lúzer, 2008                  Taxidermia, 2006; Nem vagyok a barátod, 2009       Nem leszek a barátod, 2009


Márton Vécsei       Született lúzer, 2008–2009             Diamond Club, 2011                                 Farkasember, 2008

Dániel erDélyi      Született lúzer, 2009                                                                     411-Z, 2007, Magasfeszültség, 2010.

GáBor herenDi       Társas játék, 2011–2013                Valami Amerika 2., 2008

GerGely Fonyó       Társas játék, 2011–2012                Made in Hungaria, 2009                             A látogató, 2013




Péter Fazakas       Társas játék, 2013                                                                        Mélylevegő, 2012


ilDikó enyeDi       Terápia, 2012–2017                     Testről s lélekről, 2017


attila GiGor        Terápia, 2012–2017                     Kút, 2016


orsi naGyPál        Terápia, 2014–2017                     Nyitva, 2018




Mihály schwechtje   Terápia, 2017                          Remélem legközelebb sikerül meghalnod, 2018        Aki bújt, aki nem, 2018



zsoMBor DyGa        Golden Life, 2015–2018                 Coach surf, 2014–



áron Mátyássy       Golden Life, 2015–2018                 The Transmissioner – 2016 Víkend - 2015            The Master of Light – 2019

aDrian sitaru       În derivă, 2010-2012                   Pescuit sportiv (Hooked), 2008; Din dragoste cu Valuri, 2007; Colivia, 2010; Artă, 2014; Excursia, 2014;
                                                           cele mai bune intenții (Best Intentions), 2011; Counterpart (in English), 2014
                                                           Domestic, 2012; Ilegitim, 2016.




BoGDan Mirică       Shadows (Umbre), 2014-                 Câini (Dogs), 2016                                 Bora Bora, 2011



                    Shadows (Umbre), Seasons 1 and 2, La limita de jos a cerului (The Unsaved), 2013;
iGor coBileanschi   2014-2017; Hackerville, 2018      Afacerea Est (Eastern Business), 2016.
                                                                                                      Colecția de arome (The Flavors Collection), 2013.


Marian crișan       Valea Mută (The Silent Valley), 2016   Morgen, 2010; Rocker, 2012; Orizont (Horizon), Megatron, 2008
                                                           2015, Berliner, 2020.


anca Miruna         Hackerville, 2018                      La drum cu tata (Die Reise mit Vater), 2016; Apele tac (Silent River), 2010
                                                           Glück ist was für Weicheier (Happiness Sucks),
lăzărescu                                                  2018.




Daniel sanDu        Hackerville, 2018 (writer); Bani negri Un pas în urma serafimilor (One Step Behind the Cai putere (Horse Power), 2014
                    (Tuff Money), 2019-2020                Seraphim), 2017




118                                                                           Eichel, Keszeg, Paths to Quality Television in Eastern Europe
        
The data reveal how previous experience and recognition contributed to the involvement in projects produced by HBO
Europe, as well as how such collaboration strongly influenced the career paths of these professionals.

OTHER TV PROJECTS DEVELOPED IN                        AWARDS RECEIVED IN THE SAME PERIOD                                OTHER MENTIONS
THE SAME PERIOD
                                                                                                                        Credits in Camera and Electrical Department

                                                      Szalontüdő – Valladolid International Film Festival – Audience
                                                      Award, 2007.

                                                      Egy szavazat – Silver Busho Winner, 2007




                                                      Taxidermia –Silver Hugo, Best Feature Film, 2006; Don Quixote Award, 2006, Fantasporto, Audience Jury Award,
                                                      2006; Hungarian Film Week, Grand Prize, 2006; Transilvania International Film Festival, Best Direction, 2006




Beugró (TV2, 2007-)

                                                                                                                        Producer for several projects in 2009

Hajónapló (M1, 2010); Matula kalandpark (M1, 2011); Granada International Festival of Young Filmmakers, Audience Award, Best Feature Film, 2009 – Made in Hun-
Karádysokk (Duna Televízió, 2011); Hacktion (M1, garia,
2012–2014)

Szabadság különjárat (Szupermodern Stúdió, 2013);
Fapad (Magyar Televízió, 2014–2015)

                                                      Berlin International Film Festival, Golden Berlin Bear, Winner, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Winner - 2017;
                                                      Hungarian Film Week, Grand Prize, Best Director, Best Screenplay – 2018 – Testről s lélektről

                                                                                                                        Cinematic trailers for video games

Tóth János (Megafilm, 2017); Csak színház és más
semmi (Duna Televízió, 2016)




Egynyári kaland (MTVA, 2015–2019); Jófiúk (RTL
Klub, 2019)

Mintaapák (TV2, 2019-2020)

                                                      Valuri, 2007 - The Golden Leopard (Pardo d’Oro) for short film at the Locarno Film Festival, 2007; Jury Award
                                                      for Best Cinematography, Aspen Shortsfest, 2008; BAFTA Certificate of Excellence, 2008, Best Short Film at
                                                      the Sarajevo Film Festival, 2007; Pescuit sportiv (Hooked), 2008: New Voices/ New Visions Grand Jury Prize at
                                                      Palm Springs International Film Festival, 2009; Colivia, 2010: DAAD Short Film Award, Golden Bear – Berlin –
                                                      Nominee, 2010; Best Intentions, 2011: Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival – for Best Director and Best
                                                      Actor (Bogdan Dumitrache); Best Central&Eastern European Film at the Cleveland International Film Festival,
                                                      2012; Ilegitim, 2016: C.I.C.A.E. Award, Berlinale Forum, 2016; Prix Sauvage at L’Europe autour de l’Europe Film
                                                      Festival, 2016.

                                                      Bora Bora, 2011: Best European Short Film at the Premiers Plans Festival, Angers, 2011; Dogs, 2016: FIPRESCI
                                                      Award, Prix Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival, 2016; Transylvania Trophy at the Transylvania International
                                                      Film Festival, 2016.

                                                      The Unsaved, 2013: FIPRESCI Prize for Best Debut at the Cottbus Film Festival of Young East European Cinema;
                                                      Eastern Business, 2016: Best Script and Best Actor at the Talinn Black Nights Film Festival, 2016;

                                                      Megatron, 2008: Palme d’Or for Best Short Film, Cannes Film Festival, 2008; Morgen, 2010: Special Jury Prize,
                                                      Locarno Film Festival, 2010; Best Director and FIPRESCI Award, Thessaloniki Film Festival.

Wir sind die Welle (We Are the Wave), 2019, Netflix   Apele tac (Silent River), 2010: Nomination for Best Short Film, The Secret of Deva, 2007, documentary film
                                                      Golden Bear Award, Berlin International Film Festival, 2011; on Romanian gymnastics.
                                                      Audience Award, Angers European First Film Festival, 2012;
                                                      Short Award, Berlin Interfilm Festival, 2011; Best Film, Brussels
                                                      Short Film Festival, 2011; Grand Prix, Brest European Short Film
                                                      Festival, 2011;
                                                      Grand Prize, Mediawave, Hungary, 2012, and others;
                                                      Die Reise mit Vater, 2016: One Future Prize, Honorable Mention,
                                                      Munich Film Festival;


                                                      One Step Behind the Seraphim, 2017: Best Picture, Athens Had previously collaborated in a domestic
                                                      International Film Festival, 2018; Best Screenplay, Bucharest popular TV series (national broadcast only)
                                                      International Film Festival, 2018.                            directing and writing La Bloc (2005, 2006).




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                                                                                                          
 12
      The dynamics of cultural imperialism and localization/hybridization constitute a well-known
process and appeared in the previous phases of transnational television development. Cf. Joseph D.
Straubhaar – Luiz G. Duarte, ‘Adapting US Transnational Television Channels to a Complex World:
From Cultural Imperialism to Localization to Hybridization’, in Transnational Television Worldwide:
Towards a New Media Order, ed. by Jean K. Chalaby (London: I. B. Tauris, 2005), pp. 216–254.
   13
      Anikó Imre, ‘HBO’s e-EUtopia’ Media Studies, 5.2 (2018), 50-68; Anikó Imre, ‘Streaming Freedom
in Illiberal Eastern Europe’, Critical Studies in Television, 2 (2019), 170–186.
   14
      Anna Bátori, ‘The Birth of the Post-Socialist Eastern European Televisual Collectivehood: Crime
and Patriarchy in Umbre, 2014–’, AM Journal of Art and Media Studies, 17 (2018), 37−48.
   15
      Balázs Varga, ‘Familiar, much too familiar… HBO’s Hungarian original productions and the
questions of cultural proximity’, in A European Television Fiction Renaissance, ed. by Luca Barra and
Massimo Scaglioni (London-New York: Routledge, 2021), pp. 275–294 (p. 276).
   16
        Kim Toft Hansen, Anna Keszeg and Sándor Kálai, ‘From Remade Drama to
Original Crime: HBO Europe’s Original Television Productions’, European Review,
August       (2020);     Varga,    p.     277–279;    Petr     Szczepanik:     ‘http://books.google.com/
books?hl=en&lr=&id=YxABEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT239&dq=info:xf07zjJmrZQJ:scholar.google.
com&ots=Ur__K0H5qE&sig=vTuiGtP0pHD5q3Oo0mAGZl6uqno’, in A European Television Fiction
Renaissance, ed. by Luca Barra and Massimo Scaglioni (London-New York: Routledge, 2021).
   17
      Balázs Varga, Filmrendszerváltások (Budapest: L’Harmattan, 2016), p. 137–144; Gábor Gelencsér,
Magyar film 1.0. (Budapest: Holnap Kiadó, 2017), p. 231–243.
   18
      In 1997, within a gap of three days, the two major commercial TV broadcasters started their
activity on Hungarian soil. TV2, owned at the time by the German company, ProSiebenSat1, currently
owned by Hungarian TV2 Média Csoport Zrt., and RTLKlub, owned by RTL Group Central & Eastern
Europe GmbH from Luxembourg.
   19
      The concept of small cinemas applies ambiguously to the case of Romania and Hungary. The term
is more adequate in the case of Hungary where the decrease in the number of annually produced
films accommodates with regard to the average numbers of small-scale markets. On the Eastern
European movie cultures and the concept of small cinema cf. Small Cinemas in Global Markets.
Genres, Identities, Narratives, ed. by Lenuta Giukin, Janina Falkowska and David Desser (Lanham:
Lexington Books, 2015); European Visions. Small Cinemas in Transition, ed. By Janelle Blankenship
and Tobias Nagl (Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2012). In the relation to this concept in the cases of
Romania and Hungary cf. Andrea Virginás, ‘A kis mozik fogalma: román és magyar gyártási példák’,
Filmszem, IV/3. Autumn (2014), 56–67.
   20
       Regarding the movie-going practices of Central and Eastern European countries, there
are two extremes. On one end, in the Czech Republic, local interest in homeland productions is
very important. Czech movies are largely viewed by domestic audiences. At the other end of the
spectrum, in Romania, where the international prestige of the Romanian movies translates into
a large number of awards and festival recognition, the local interest in Romanian movies is quite
insignificant within the confines of the EU. Cf. Susanne Nikoltchev, Yearbook 2018/2019. Key Trends.
Television, cinema, video and on-demand audiovisual services. The Pan-European Picture (European
Audiovisual Observatory, Council of Europe, 2019) https://rm.coe.int/yearbook-keytrends-2018-
2019-en/1680938f8e [accessed 30 October 2020]; Marzia Bona, ‘European cinema-going habits vary
significantly: a look at the current divide between Western and Eastern Europe’, Filmrendszerváltások,
p. 20–21, https://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Areas/Europe/Europeans-at-the-cinema-from-East-
to-West-186036 [accessed 30 October 2020].



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
  21
     As a conclusion to an analysis concerning the trends in the Hungarian cinema post-socialism,
Balázs Varga states the following: ‘If we want an answer to the question who made the most movies
in Hungary in the last two and a half decades, than, following our data, and slightly oversimplifying
the facts, we can argue that [they are] those who dared to begin without any financial background,
those who produced movies for the masses, those who had a canonic, prestigious oeuvre and those
young directors who were welcomed at foreign film festivals’, Varga, Filmrendszerváltások, p.144.
  22
     Gábor Erőss, ‘A magyar film emancipációja’, 2000, Special Issue (2004), 25–40 (p. 25).
  23
     For a better understanding of the relation between the directors’ work for HBO and their access
to international recognition see the appendix. It details how these processes have been mutually
interdependent.
  24
     Janet McCabe and Akass Kim, ‘It’s Not TV, It’s HBO’s Original Programming: Producing Quality
TV’, in It’s Not TV: Watching HBO in the Post-Television Era, ed. by Marc Leverette, Brian L. Ott and
Cara Louise Buckley (New York: Routledge 2008), pp. 83–94.
  25
     Varga, ‘Familiar, much too familiar… HBO’s Hungarian original productions and the questions of
cultural proximity’, p. 279.
  26
     The directors labeled with this name had a quasi-synchronous apparition in a symbolic year, in
2000. Cf. Varga, Filmrendszerváltások (Budapest: L’Harmattan, 2016) p. 145–146.
  27
     Three of the directors involved in the creation of Született lúzer were members of the famous
Simó-class (Dániel Erdélyi, Gábor Fisher, György Pálfi): a UTFA class coordinated by Sándor Simó,
director of the Hunnia Studio who proved to be a very efficient teacher in talent development. The
members of his first class set the tone for ‘Young Hungarian Cinema’ due to their famous coming-
of-age movies (Moszkva square, Ferenc Török, 2001; Macerás ügyek, Szabolcs Hajdu, 2001; Előre!
Dániel Erdélyi, 2002). The story of the second Simó-class was marked by Simó’s death after the first
academic year. However, the members of the class had a quasi-similar, yet not as strong as the
members of the first class. From this second generation, HBO worked with Attila Gigor (Terápia)
and Áron Mátyássy (Golden life). Curiously, even though Simó’s strategy was marked by the coming-
of-age story, the directors who worked for HBO experimented with genre formats. Cf. György Pálfi
whose first international success was an experimental crime thriller, Hukkle (2002)., Fisher’s first
movie was a comedy (Montecarlo!, 2004) and Gigor’s debut film was a crime drama (A nyomozó,
2008). For the history of the Simó classes see Klára Buzogány, ‘Így jöttek…’, Korunk, February (2002)
https://epa.oszk.hu/00400/00458/00134/buzoganyk.html [accessed 30 October 2020]. On Simó’s
impact on his students career cf. Interview with Áron Mátyássy made by Ferenc Varga and Lili
Mesterházy. Filmklub Podcast, 8 January 2013; Interview with Attila Gigor made by Ferenc Varga and
Lili Mesterházy, Filmklub Podcast, 28 February 2019.
  28
     Varga, ‘Familiar, much too familiar… HBO’s Hungarian original productions and the questions of
cultural proximity’, p. 280.
  29
     Petr Szczepanik, ‘Transnational Crews and Postsocialist Precarity: Globalizing Screen Media
Labor in Prague’, in Precarious Creativity: Global Media, Local Labor, ed. by Michael Curtin and
Kevin Sanson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2016), pp. 88–103; Varga, ‘Familiar, much too
familiar… HBO’s Hungarian original productions and the questions of cultural proximity’, p. 282.
  30
     2002: Valami Amerika (Gábor Herendi, 526,000 admissions); 2004: Magyar Vándor (Gábor Herendi,
456,000 admissions); 2008: Valami Amerika 2 (Gábor Herendi, 428,000 admissions) ; 2009: Made in
Hungaria (Gergely Fonyó, 225,000 admissions).
  31
     Varga, ‘Familiar, much too familiar… HBO’s Hungarian original productions and the questions of
cultural proximity’, p. 285.


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 32
     Gusztáv Schubert ‘Az HBO első magyar tévésorozatával is a minőségi szórakoztatást képviseli a
bulvárcsatornák ellenében’, Filmvilág, 3. (2012) 47.
  33
     In a discussion of her career path, Orsi Nagypál acknowledges that she is an outsider amongst
Hungarian directors because of her different education. Though she admits that a degree offered
by the UTFA ensures a precious social network in Hungary, she also affirms that working with HBO
made it possible for her to collaborate equally with two of the main personalities of the university.
Cf. Interview with Orsi Nagypál made by Bálint Horváth and Janka Pozsonyi, Filmhu Podcast, 15 July
2018. On the working methods of Ildikó Enyedi, many of her collaborators acknowledged that she is a
pro? seasoned in of a soft? working culture where safety and personal expression are core values. Cf.
Interview with Attila Gigor made by Ferenc Varga and Lili Mesterházy, Filmklub Podcast, 28 February
2019.
  34
     Cf. the analysis of the show in Varga, ‘Familiar, much too familiar… HBO’s Hungarian original
productions and the questions of cultural proximity’, pp. 286–287.
  35
     Anikó Imre, ‘Minőség és televízió’, Apertúra, tavasz (2018) https://uj.apertura.hu/2018/tavasz/
imre-minoseg-es-televizio/ [accessed 30 October 2020].
  36
       Cathrin Portuges, ‘Central European Twins: Psychoanalysis and Cinema in Ildikó
Enyedi’s My Twentieth Century’, Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 27:4 (2007), 525-539, DOI: https://doi.
org/10.1080/07351690701484675.
  37
     This movie received 17 international awards.
  38
     On the career paths of the directors cf. Interview with Zsombor Dyga made by Dénes Varga and
Janka Pozsonyi, Filmhu Podcast, 28 September 2018. Interview with Áron Mátyássy made by Ferenc
Varga and Lili Mesterházy. Filmklub Podcast, 8 January 2013.
  39
     Zsombor Dyga’s first movie was celebrated because it was received as ‘finding its way between
adapting current Hollywood genres and actual cult movies.’ Lóránt Stőhr, ‘A meglelt haza. Dyga
Zsombor Tesó’, Filmvilág, 4 (2003), 52–53 (p. 52).
  40
     Tamás Dénes Soós, ‘Aranyélet - Jobban teljesít’, Filmvilág 2 (2016), 34–35.
  41
     See Adina Schneeweis, ‘To Be Romanian in Post-Communist Romania. Entertainment Television
and Patriotism in Popular Discourse, in Popular Television in Eastern Europe During and Since
Socialism, ed. by Timothy Havens, Aniko Imre, Katalin Lustyik (New York-London, Routledge, 2013),
p. 143: ‘Content-wise, television production in particular has shifted to a focus on entertainment and
sensationalism, on both public and private stations, having to cope with new market demands and
competition from imported content. The bulk of the programming in the last 22 years (films, dramas,
situation comedies, and soap operas, as well as successful formats for television talk shows, game
shows, reality and news shows) has been imported mostly from Western countries, mainly from the
U.S.; and yet local production is certainly on the rise’
  42
     Norbert Elias, ‘Changes in the We-I Balance’, in The Society of Individuals (Oxford, UK-Cambridge,
Mass.: Basil Blackwell, 1991), argues that: ‘The social habitus, and therefore the layer of habitus
forming the national character, is certainly not an enigma. As a social formation, it is (...) flexible and
far from immutable. It is, in fact, always in flux. (...) the changing power relationships, both within and
between states, influence the formation of feelings in this area’, p. 211.
  43
     Jérôme Bourdon, ‘Self-Inflicted Imperialism? On the Americanizations of Television in Europe’, in
We Europeans? Media, Representations, Identities, ed. by William Uricchio (Bristol-Chicago: Intellect,
2009), pp. 93-109.
  44
     See Sylvia Szostak, ‘Immitation, Borrowing, Recycling. American Models and Polish Domestic




122                                                  Eichel, Keszeg, Paths to Quality Television in Eastern Europe

Drama’, in Cinéma& Cie, vol. XII, no. 19, Fall 2012: “The dramatic growth of the Polish television
market and production sector now allows Polish producers to engage with, and respond to, viewers’
expectations by producing original Polish drama that emulates American visual style and its
production value”, p. 87.
  45
     See Andrea Virginás, ‘New Filmic Waves in Hungarian and Romanian Cinema: Allegories or
Stories about Flesh?’, in Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies, 4, pp.131-141.
  46
     See Anikó Imre, A Companion to Eastern European Cinema (Malden: Wiley Blackwell, 2012), p. 14:
‘they have been able to carve out a financing structure within and between the complicated schemes
of state and European funding and public and private enterprise’.
  47
     Cristi Puiu, ‘șansa’, in Dilema Veche, 23.01.2001 (my translation). The director recalls his university
years at at École Supérieure d’Art Visuel in Geneva and writing his dissertation on realism in film.
Upon returning to Romania, his project was to apply these ideas in order to make cinema that would
be ‘like Godard said: la vérité vingt quatre fois par seconde’. The article is available in Romanian here:
https://newskeeper.ro/articol?id=6C15F049E868B2834DB0896B4B60444D&data=2001-02-23
  48
     Small Cinemas in Global Markets. Genres, Identities, Narratives, ed. by David Desser, Janina
Falkowska and Lenuta Giukin (Lanham-London: Lexington Books, 2015), p. X
  49
     Cristi Puiu, ‘Despre contribuția regizorilor la beteșugul cinematografiei’, Dilema, no. 540, 8 –
14 August 2003, available online in Romanian: https://dilemaveche.ro/sectiune/dileme-on-line/
articol/despre-contributia-regizorilor-la-betesugul-cinematografiei [accessed 5 January 2021] (my
translation for the quoted excerpt).
  50
     Doru Pop, Romanian New Wave Cinema. An Introduction (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company,
2014), p. 111
  51
     Bogdan Mirică, in an interview for the press agency News.ro, edited by Patricia Marinescu,
11 November 2017, available on: https://www.news.ro/cultura-media/interviu-regizorul-
bogdan-mirica-despre-noul-sezon-umbre-vecinul-tau-e-mafiot-vrei-sa-stii-cum-e-viata-
lui-1922403011002017111017382542 [accessed 31 January 2021]. My translation from Romanian.
  52
     In this section of the article, television shows produced in Romania are referenced with their
original titles, i.e. in Romanian only if they have not circulated internationally. Otherwise, their titles
are mentioned in English as well as in Romanian.
  53
     Anna Bátori, ‘The Birth of the Post-Socialist Eastern European Televisual Collectivehood: Crime
and Patriarchy in Shadows (Umbre, 2014- )’, in AM Journal of Art and Media Studies, No. 17, 2018, p. 40.




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