Biszku's family previously protested against screening in a Budapest cinema, on privacy claims. The daughters then viewed the film on Wednesday and agreed that screening can go ahead.
Bela Biszku, who had not given any interviews since the regime change two decades ago, insisted in the documentary that Hungary had seen a counter-revolution in October 1956, adding that he had not felt any regret or remorse for the death penalties meted out during the post-1956 retaliations.
In the film entitled Crime Without Punishment, Biszku argued that it was the judges rather than him who had passed the sentences, and denied that he had intervened in the criminal procedures as a minister. He added that Imre Nagy, prime minister in 1956 who was sentenced to death two years later, had "deserved his fate".
Fruzsina Skrabski and Tamas Novak
The film has become a matter of legal and political debates over the past few years. Its directors, Fruzsina Skrabski and Tamas Novak, originally approached the veteran communist on the pretext that they wanted to ask him about his native village, and disclosed their true intention only during their last meeting. Biszku first consented to the premiere but later on withdrew his permission.
The parliamentary committee on culture and media on Tuesday decided to support calls for the screening of the documentary. The committee issued a resolution which proposes that historical documentaries in general should not be banned from public showing on grounds of rights to privacy.
