Márta Mészáros — Playwright (5)

Movie

Riddance (1973)
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other title: 자유로운 호흡 / Freier Atem …
Jutka, a young woman who works in a factory, falls in love with Andras, a university student. She pretends to be a student, to him and to his parents, and begins to live a lie. Finally she rebels against Andras and his demands and the social conventions that forced her to live a lie.

Movie

Little Vilma: The Last Diary (2000)
Kisvilma WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
other title: Kisvilma / Little Vilna: The Last Diary …
The movie is inspired by writer-director Márta Mészáros' own childhood. The film is a grim reminder of horrible days under Stalinist period when several innocent people were persecuted for no fault. A good film which allow people to know how people in Europe were tortured before second world war by dictators and authoritarian regimes.

Movie

Nine Months (1976)
Kilenc hónap WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
other title: 九个月的爱情 / Kilenc hónap …
Juli moves to the big city in order to take up a job in a factory, and on the very same day the foreman János asks her to marry him. Alas, communication between the two is rough going from the very start – their visions of how life together is supposed to look divide them. János can’t find it in his heart to accept Juli’s yearning for independence or her past. In raw images that portend an almost predetermined conclusion with their social-realist tone, the film shows Juli’s resistance with all of its consequences – she decides to have her baby all on her own. In the end, we witness the actual delivery of Juli’s (in reality of course actress Lili Monori’s) child, the first birth to be shown in a film in Europe. Nine Months was honoured with the Fipresci Prize (Parallel Sections) in Cannes in 1977. Since my first film « Cati », I have been obstinately inquiring about women with well defined personalities, able to make decisions in an independent manner, although at that time « feminism » was not really in vogue. It has now become so. The heroine of my film is one of these women. She is lucid, self-relying, and responsible. She tells the man who loves her that he must accept her as she is, with her past life, her experiences, her already formed personality. - Marta MESZAROS