Freedom's Fury (2007)

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1956 was a turbulent year in Hungary; an Eastern Bloc nation which came under the political control of the Soviet Union after suffering under Nazi domination during World War II, Hungary rose up against the U.S.S.R. in a revolutionary bid for independence that was shut down in less than two weeks when Soviet troops rolled into the country to crush the democratic uprising. Later that same year, with the memory of the violent reprisals of the Russian invasion clear in everyone's minds, the Soviets and the Hungarians met on another field of battle -- the water polo semifinals at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. Determined not to buckle under to the Russians, the Hungarian team played an aggressive match that was described by many as the most violent water polo contest in Olympic history. Filmmaker Colin Keith Gray looks back at the events of this crucial year in Hungarian history with the documentary Freedom's Fury, which tells the stories of both the Hungarian revolution and the nation's water polo team in their bid to turn the tables on the Soviet Union, if only in Olympic competition. Olympic swimming legend Mark Spitz narrates the film; Lucy Liu and Quentin Tarantino served as executive producers on the project. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi