#1115: MÉSZÁROS, Márta: Adoption (1975)

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MÉSZÁROS, Márta (Hungary)
Adaoption [1975]
Spine #1115
Blu-ray


Trailblazing auteur Márta Mészáros gives aching expression to the experiences of women in 1970s Hungary in this sensitive and absorbing drama, which became the first film directed by a woman to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Through intimate camera work, Adoption immerses the viewer in the worlds of two women, each searching for fulfillment: Kata (Katalin Berek), a middle-aged factory worker who wants to have a child with her married lover, and Anna (Gyöngyvér Vígh), a teenage ward of the state determined to emancipate herself in order to marry her boyfriend. The bond that forms between the two speaks quietly but powerfully to the social and political forces that shape women’s lives, as each navigates the realities of love, marriage, and motherhood in her quest for self-determination.

86 minutes
Black and White
Monaural
in Hungarian
1:85:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2022

Director/Writers

Screenplay by Márta Mészáros, Gyula Hernádi, and Ferenc Grunwalsky.
Mészáros was 44 when she directed Adoption.

The Film

a

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twenty-page booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Elena Gorfinkel.

Commentary

None.

Video essay

By scholar Catherine Portuges.

Interview

With Mészáros from 2019.

Short film

From 1964 by Mészáros: Blow-Ball.

Márta Mészáros: Portrait of the Hungarian Filmmaker

A 1979 documentary by Katja Raganelli featuring on-set interviews with the director and creative collaborators.

Trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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