The Subotica Synagogue was radical from the start: instead of the historicist styles then usual for synagogue building, Marcell Komor and Dezső Jakab designed an interior of flowing plant ornament, coloured glass and painted surfaces beneath a broad central dome, using the Hungarian Secession as a language of faith. The film examines that decorative system in detail - the stencilled motifs, the ceramic elements, the way daylight is filtered and tinted before it reaches the floor - and sets the building against the story of the community that built it, devastated in the Second World War. For decades the synagogue stood on the edge of collapse; a long, technically demanding restoration has since brought back its structure and its palette. A major architecture and Jewish-heritage title, and a natural companion piece to Subotica City Hall.
