About Adoption/Örökbefogadás

Trailblazing auteur Márta Mészáros helms a sensitive and absorbing slice-of-life drama, which became the first film directed by a woman to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Through intensely intimate camerawork, Mészáros immerses the viewer in the world’s two women, each searching for fulfillment: Kata (Katalin Berek), a middle-aged factory worker who wishes to have a child with her married lover, and Anna (Gyöngyvér Vigh), 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. [89 mins; drama; Hungarian with English subtitles]

The film will be preceded by a special virtual introduction from film scholar and critic Dr. Elena Gorfinkel (Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, King’s College London).

Dr. Gorfinkel’s research concerns marginal and independent cinemas, including adult, experimental, & underground film, particularly from the 1960s to the present. She was previously Associate Professor of Art History & Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Gorfinkel holds a PhD in Cinema Studies from New York University.

“[Mészáros’s] rich and cohesive body of work—uniquely attuned to the social, economic, and political forces that govern the lives of working people, especially women—has made her one of Central Europe’s foremost directors and a pioneer among women filmmakers worldwide.” – Janus Films

“Adoption was a critical turning point in Mészáros’s career and her moment of global recognition as a formidable auteur.” – Elena Gorfinkel, Criterion Collection

This screening is generously supported by the Women’s Philanthropy Leadership Council.