Márta Mészáros

Born in Hungary, Márta Mészáros spent her early years in the Soviet Union, her communist father having fled there to escape the dictatorship of his native country. But he disappeared during Stalin's purges at the end of the 1930s. Shortly afterwards, Mészáros also lost her mother. These early tragedies had an impact on the autobiographical part of her work. Following her film studies in Moscow, she returned to Hungary and made many short films, especially documentaries, an aspect that would persist in her later work. In the 1960s, she joined the Mafilm Group 4 and met the filmmaker Miklós Jancsó, who became her husband. In 1968, Cati made her the first woman to direct a feature film in Hungary. Mészáros then made a series of films, sometimes defying censorship and never shying away from any social issue. Political, feminist and formally audacious, her work has met with both critical and public success over the years, making her a key name in Eastern European cinema.

These photos were digitized as part of the Márta Mészáros X 13 cycle