In Episode 3 of Fields of Power, we head out onto Hungary's great plains in search of people living through the country's land battles. What we find is a landscape marked not just by farmers without land, but by fear.

Episode 3: Fear and Loathing in Hungary

We meet István, a shepherd in his seventies whose life was upended when his grazing land was handed to a politically connected newcomer – setting off a chain of intimidation and violence that still haunts him. His story leads us to others: the farmers of Kishantos, like Ferenc and Éva, who faced threats, assaults, and the destruction of their life's work for resisting unfair land deals. And in a village beside the prime minister's childhood home, we learn about András Váradi, the "truth-telling shepherd" who fought the system until the night he died under circumstances many believe were never properly investigated.

As we travel through rural Hungary, we hear how these struggles are kept out of local newspapers, how journalists are discouraged from reporting, and how intimidation shapes everyday life. Noémi Gonda, a Hungarian researcher reflects on how deeply violence and fear have become embedded in the regime's hold over the countryside.

Yet this episode is also about resistance: the stubborn refusal of farmers, activists, and ordinary villagers to be silenced. Their stories reveal not only what is happening to Hungary's land, but what is happening to its democracy.