Piano Rivals

Poland and Hungary are two nations in the middle of the big powers of East and West, and they have suffered greatly as pawns in the struggle for power in Europe. The two composers and piano geniuses from those two countries in the 1800s, Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt, were born only a year apart, and they have become symbols of their nations and a source of pride. 

This film is about them, their lives, their music, and what that music has meant for their nations, neither of which were independent during the composers' lifetimes. It is the story of how much music and culture can mean to a people in despair, and the threat it poses to dictators and invaders.

We follow the background of both composers, how they grew up, both of them hailed as wonderchilds.They both met in Paris, where they were the biggest superstars of pianists. 
Some of the story is told by George Sand, the female, cigar-smoking author who took a man's "nom de plume" and who knew them both, and who had a love affair with Chopin. 

The film moves from biographical stories, told by scholars and experts to events of the 1900s such as the story of Chopin's heart during the second world war.

Filmed in Warsaw, Budapest, Vienna, Raiding, Zelazowa Wola, Nohant, Princeton and in Sweden,  it contains interviews with some of the foremost scholars of Chopin and Liszt, as well as music performed by director Per Tengstrand, violinist Hana Mundiya and violist Katie Liu.