CHINA Edition
Hungarian Edition
HBO is taking a distinctly Hungarian true-crime story to an international audience. The two-part documentary series Az igazság mániákusai will premiere this autumn on HBO Max and HBO in Hungary, while becoming available simultaneously in more than 100 countries under the English title Maniacs of the Truth.
Described by HBO as its first Hungarian Original true-crime documentary series, the production examines major cases from the turbulent final years of state socialism and the period following Hungary’s political transition. An exact premiere date has yet to be announced.
Inside the detectives’ circle
Rather than relying on an external narrator, the series is built around a group of retired and veteran homicide investigators who regularly meet in a Budapest office to revisit the defining cases of their careers.
Hosted by retired detective Ernő Tóth, the conversations feature István Krispán, János Kőrösi, Lajos Kovács and Attila Petőfi, joined by crime journalist László Illisz. Their recollections reveal not only how the investigations unfolded, but also how detectives worked before digital databases, mobile communications and many of the forensic tools now considered standard.
The group returns to crimes that once dominated the Hungarian public conversation, sometimes sharing details that have not previously been disclosed. Some of the investigations reached a conclusion; others continue to carry unanswered questions decades later.
Among the cases featured are the 1991 kidnapping of 18-year-old Helga Farkas and the series of murders associated with Magda Marinko during the 1990s. Both stories became deeply embedded in Hungary’s collective memory and reflect a period marked by rapid social change and a newly emerging world of organised crime.
Three years of access
Directors and co-producers Adél Szajki-Vörös and Péter Szajki spent three years developing the project with HBO. Their connection to Tóth gradually opened the door to the wider circle of investigators, allowing the filmmakers to observe conversations shaped by professional trust and decades of shared experience.
That access gives the series its central perspective: the cases are reconstructed through the memories and reasoning of the people who actually investigated them. The focus extends beyond the crimes themselves to the decisions, personal costs and lingering uncertainties behind the pursuit of answers.
According to HBO, Maniacs of the Truth is also its first true-crime documentary series produced in Central and Eastern Europe. Its rollout across every market where HBO Max is available gives the production a reach rarely afforded to Hungarian factual programming.
The international release will test how a documentary rooted in a particular moment of Hungarian history travels beyond its original context. While the investigations are unmistakably local, the questions at their centre—how truth is established, what remains after a case is closed and how unresolved crimes follow those who worked on them—need little translation.
