“The Trap” – Direkt36’s new film about Orbán’s historic chance

2026. February 13.

Direkt36

The new film by the creators of “The Dynasty” is about what Viktor Orbán did with the extraordinary opportunity he was given to lift the country up. The film presents the history of the past 16 years through the areas that most affect people.

Viktor Orbán had a rare opportunity in 2010. He gained a supermajority in parliament, giving him a strong mandate to put Hungary on a path to development.

The circumstances were also favorable. The global economy boomed in the 2010s, and Hungary received a huge amount of funding from the European Union, on a scale unseen in the country’s modern history.

What did Viktor Orbán do with these unprecedented opportunities? To what extent did he keep the promises he made 16 years ago?

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This is the subject of a new documentary by Direkt36, which analyzes the Orbán era’s performance, focusing on the economy, healthcare, education, and transportation. Data, expert opinions, and personal stories help to illustrate this.

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The film was made by Direkt36 staff members Patrik Galavits, Kamilla Marton, Péter Nádori, András Pethő, and Dániel Szőke in collaboration with independent filmmakers. The film was directed by Máté Fuchs, assisted by Bálint Bíró and many other film professionals.

In some ways, The Trap is related to Direkt36’s previous documentary, The Dynasty, which showed how the Orbán family built their business empire. The new film is essentially about what happens to services that fundamentally affect people’s lives when the government’s priority is not to develop these areas, but to gain and expand economic power.

Cover photo: Miklós Sebes

  • András is a co-founder, editor and executive director of Direkt36. Previously, he was a senior editor for leading Hungarian news site Origo before it had been transformed into the government’s propaganda outlet. He also worked for the BBC World Service in London and was a reporter at the investigative unit of The Washington Post. He has contributed to several international reporting projects, including The Panama Papers. He twice won the Soma Prize, the prestigious annual award dedicated to investigative journalism in Hungary. He was a World Press Institute fellow in 2008, a Humphrey fellow at the University of Maryland in 2012/13, and a Nieman fellow at Harvard University in 2019/20. András has taught journalism courses at Hungarian universities.

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