About A besugo
A besugo, released internationally as The Informant, is a Hungarian period spy drama set in Budapest in 1985, during the final years of communist rule. The story follows Geri, a twenty-year-old beginning his first year at university, whose ordinary student life is upended when the State Security service blackmails him into becoming an informant. With a seriously ill younger brother who depends on state-supplied medication, Geri feels he has no real choice but to comply.
Tasked with infiltrating a circle of pro-democracy activists led by the charismatic Zsolt Szava, Geri is drawn deeper into a double life. As he befriends the students he is meant to betray, the series traces the moral cost of collaboration, the seductions of belonging, and the constant fear of exposure under a surveillance state. His handler, the watchful officer Imre Kiss, keeps the pressure on, leaving Geri caught between loyalty to his new friends and the demands of the secret police.
Created, written, and directed by Balint Szentgyorgyi as HBO Europe's first fully Hungarian original production, the eight-episode series became a domestic phenomenon. It was the most-watched HBO Max title in Hungary in both April and May 2022, and it was distributed to dozens of territories. The show generated debate at home over its portrayal of the era, marking it as one of the most discussed Hungarian dramas of its decade.
