Orban Balazs – The Bone Baron

The cult figure of baron Orbán Balázs, aka “The greatest of the Szeklers” was - and still is - a defining personality for the Szeklers (Hungarians living in Transylvania). In this animation series project, we undertake to present his life, his ambition to culturally interconnect the East with the West, his twelve years’ journey through the Middle East and North Africa, and his friendship with the prominent personalities of the era, including Kossuth Lajos, the central figure of the 1848-49 Hungarian Revolution and Victor Hugo, as well as his career as a member of the Hungarian Parliament in his later years. His life was one of a romantic adventurer, a revolutionary thinker, and a true advocate of peace between nations and cultures, a promoter of true European values.

Director’s statement
”With 200 men like Balázs Orbán we could overthrow the tyranny of Napoleon III” – said Victor Hugo about the Transylvanian baron Orbán Balázs, The Bone Baron. I was inspired by his story, he was a truly revolutionary figure, with a multicultural background: his grandmother was Greek, he spoke several languages, and he was way ahead of his time in being an enthusiastic promotor of true European values. His dream was to culturally “unite East with West”, and this conviction led him to his involvement in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-49, his 12 years’ travel through the Middle East and Egypt, and his emigration to western Europe in flight from the retaliation of the Austrian Empire. Later he traveled through Transylvania, taking notes and photos of each settlement and historical site, and wrote his monumental work The Description of Transylvania, which he intended would put the region on the map of Europe. Using authentic photos and up-to-date technology, we have created a 21st-century animation series.