Diary for My Children
Napló gyermekeimnek

Writer/director Márta Mészáros made 25 documentary shorts over the span of ten years before making her feature directorial debut, The Day Has Gone or The Girl, in 1968. That movie was the first Hungarian feature directed by a woman and won the Special Prize of the Jury at the Valladolid International Film Festival. Her 1984 feature won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes. Diary for My Children is the first of an autobiographical trilogy, followed by Diary for My Lovers and Diary for My Father and Mother, all starring Zsuzsa Czinkóczi as Mészáros' surrogate.

Diary for My Children is a bleak movie about a young woman, Juli (Czinkóczi), who returns from the Soviet Union to her native Budapest after losing both her parents during Stalin's purges. She goes to live with her aunt and adoptive mother, Magda (Anna Polony), but she is unhappy living there. The strict socialist Magda seems to be trying to erase Juli's memory of her parents and absorb her into the new family unit in much the same way Hungery is getting assimilated into the Soviet domain and mindset. Juli's only ally is her beloved uncle János (Jan Nowicki). Like Magda, he was formerly part of the opposition, fighting communism away from home, but he still retains some of that spirit of defiance, whereas she has given in and joined up. János inspires Juli's stubborn efforts to live her own life, but that may not be the best course of action for either of them.

Mészáros intercuts documentary footage from the period with her fictionalized narrative to great effect. The film is shot in rich, deep-focus black-and-white by cinematographer Nyika Jancsó. Czinkóczi is a compelling actress with a face made for black-and-white photography. There's so much in this story that I lack context for, knowing little about Hungery's transformation after WWII and into the era of industrialization, but Juli is a deeply relatable character, and it's fascinating thinking about such a typical seeming teenager in such a foreign time and land. The movie feels utterly "of its era" (both 1984 and mid-40s/early-50s).