Article by Alin Buzărin – Published on Thursday, 20 November 2025, 17:55 / Updated on Thursday, 20 November 2025 18:01
An excellent documentary, made by the Hungarians, with whose great football, players and coach intersected only as an opponent.
Boloni – The legend that connects us. This is the Romanian title of the film. That is, it connects us, the Romanians, to the Hungarians. In Hungarian, the film is called Boloni – Az Erdelyi Legenda, meaning the legend from Transylvania. Notice the nuance, in this version the verb “to bind” disappears!
Wanted at Honved
Kollarik Tamas, the first on the film's list of directors, is a Hungarian citizen and an ardent fan of Honved. The great Budapest club where monuments of Hungarian football such as Puskas, Bozsik or, later, Detari played, is now in the Hungarian second division, but that does not change the details of the past.
Once upon a time, Kollarik, as a supporter, wanted Boloni at Honved, at least as a coach if he couldn't as a player. In fact, this is where the story seems to start, from this detail not mentioned in the film itself, but revealed immediately after the premiere.
A certain view of betrayal
And there is another basic idea. The fact that for a year and a half, from the spring of 1980 to the end of the fall of 1981, the ethnic Hungarian Boloni, an unshakable starter until then, was no longer called up to our national team precisely because one of the opponents in the preliminary group for the WC in Spain 1982 was Hungary itself.
Rematch came two decades later, in early June 2001, when, as Romania's coach, Boloni beat Hungary 2-0 in Ghencea. He was then made a traitor by a part of the Romanians before the match and by a part of the Hungarians after. There is no forest without dry land, and this phrase was explicitly spoken in the film by the main actor.
Co-starring:
It's a very good movie, two hours long. As a rule, documentaries are much shorter. But there would not have been time for the revelations of some great Romanian footballers (Hagi, Tudorel Stoica, Lung, Pițurcă, Duckadam, Belodedici, Balint) or foreigners (Varane, Quaresma, Joao Pinto, Petr Cseh, Nylassi, Kalman Kovacs, Martos, Witsel).
Plus professors from Medicine, friends, actors, Boloni's wife and daughter.
Symptoms of emotion and Mrs. Ilona
Throughout the film, the lead actor plays his role very well. It's that Laci Boloni we've known for a lifetime. Moving from frowning to brooding, from concern to humor. All through many emotional moments. There are sequences in which his chin trembles, his eyes moisten, his voice wavers.
The main character relives the key moments of his life and explains to us through these obvious symptoms of emotion the experiences he has had over the years. Boloni's mother also plays an important role in the production.
Mrs. Ilona lives in Budapest, is 101 years old and filmed when she was 97-98. She is clear in her thoughts and expression, recounting her sufferings as a widowed woman at the age of 43, who fought to see her two sons with university degrees in hand.
