Marta Meszaros

Key figure of Hungarian cinema who has dealt almost exclusively with the situation of women in contemporary society. Meszaros began her career working on newsreels in Budapest and joined the Mafilm Group 4 film unit in 1966. She made her feature debut with "The Girl" (1968), a poignant study of a young woman's search for affection which staked out several of the director's main concerns. Here, and in later features such as "Riddance" (1973) and "Adoption" (1975), Meszaros brings stylish camerawork and finely tuned powers of observation to bear on contemporary sexual, psychological, social and inter-generational relationships. She is perhaps best known for her autobiographical account of the Stalinist period, "Diary for My Children" (1982), which uses newsreel footage and clips from 1950s features to weave a complex, personal and political portrait of the era. Withheld from distribution in the West for two years, "Diary" finally won a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1984. Meszaros has been married three times: to documentarian Laszlo Karda; to director Miklos Jancso; and, most recently, to Polish actor Jan Nowicki, who has appeared in films by his wife as well as several other leading directors.