Diary for My Children (1984) DVD

Márta Mészáros’ first instalment in her highly regarded ‘Diary’ trilogy became an instant classic of Hungarian cinema when it picked up the Grand Prix Special Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1984. Now, getting a second run on DVD, Diary for My Children is as politically engaging and unrelentingly honest as ever. One of the most accomplished and respected female directors of her time; Mészáros stunning romanticist memoir poignantly reflects her obsession with her lost parents, set against the bleak socio-political back drop of 1940s Hungary.

Like the film’s central character, Juli, Mészáros migrated to Soviet Russia in 1936, aged 5, to start a new life with her father, who mysteriously disappeared soon after. Taking a poignantly autobiographical tone, the film opens with Juli’s return to Hungary in 1947, a landscape she has become disenchanted with since the absence of her father. Despondent, Juli struggles to reintegrate into a society that has recently been transformed by revolution. After moving in with her estranged aunt, Magda (Anna Polony), a rebellious Stalinist revolutionary, Juli’s timidity is stripped back as her strained relationship with Magda settles in a mutual respect that bonds the women.

Although Mészáros’ Diary is overtly personal, its expert structure and character depth make it strikingly universal. Mixing newsreel footage from the period with a rich black and white cinematography (captured by her son, Niyika Jancsó), Mészáros paints a vivid portrait of a country under threat by Communism at a time when social sacrifice was a harsh means to the stability of future generations.

Adam Woodward