Márta Mészáros

Adoption, released in 1975, follows Kata, a 43-year-old factory worker who wants a child, and Anna, a younger woman living in a difficult family situation. Katalin Berek plays Kata, and the film won the Golden Bear at Berlin, making Mészáros the first woman to win that prize. ([Criterion](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7549-m-rta-m-sz-ros-s-adoption-1975))

The trilogy begins with Diary for My Children from 1984, which follows orphaned Juli in postwar Hungary under Stalinist rule. It continues with Diary for My Loves in 1987 and Diary for My Father and Mother in 1990. ([Janus Films](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2049))

Nine Months, released in 1976, explores pregnancy, motherhood, and a woman's struggle to keep control of her own life. Mészáros uses the workplace and family pressures around a young woman's pregnancy to question traditional expectations. ([Hungarian National Film Institute](https://nfi.hu/file/documents/2/2531/meszaros_marta_kiajanlo_eng_2024.pdf))

Her films repeatedly place women in conflicts involving family, work, motherhood, political authority, and private desire. Adoption and the Diary films are especially direct examples of her focus on women trying to make choices within restrictive social systems. ([Hungarian National Film Institute](https://nfi.hu/en/national-film-institute/news/a-woman-who-wants-to-live-and-to-give-life-interview-with-marta-meszaros.html))