ADOPTION, the Golden Bear winner from Márta Mészáros, once married to Jancsó, is an entirely different monster, defiantly sets an unmarried, 40-something woman as its focus point, she is Kata (Berek), a factory worker who intends to have a child on her own, even to the firm disapproval of her married lover Jóska (Szabó), and she has a dry run when a girl from the nearby children institution, Anna (Vigh) seeks refuge in her house, so she can meet her sweetheart Sanyi (Fried) in private, Kata’s maternal potential is under test as a capricious Anna is hardly a cakewalk for her, however, a unique bond starts to shape and a deeply felt compassion prompts Kata to take it on her self to seek consent from Anna’s delinquent mother and stepfather, so that she and Sanyi can tie the knot, start their life anew.
The two women’s growing tendresse is mesmerically invoked by Mészáros’ considerate, intimate camera that, more often than not, takes a closer attachment to its subjects in dreamlike soft-focus, conjures up a sensible, sensual aroma that shores up the feminine rapport which becomes the backbone of the story, yet Mészáros neither romanticizes nor dents the edge off the strains that germinate from two strangers’ tentative elicitations. Also her keen eye on realism coheres with a judicious awareness of the location, whether in the factory where female wage slaves toil in an insalubrious environment, or a pokey apartment where Kata braves herself with Jóska’s unwitting wife, Mészáros’ female instinct and acuteness prevails in this heartfelt, earnest gem.
Remarkably, she doesn’t opt for a radical strategy to tackle the sexism issue head on, Kata, through Berek’s sterling interpretation, who particularly resembles Helen Mirren but foregrounds her steely fortitude, unalloyed emotion to the fore with flying colors, is not designed to be a crusader, no banner is brandished, no rousing speech is required, she is a feminist fighter in the most pragmatical way, do the right thing within her capacity, she sees the problems (whether it is in the self-seeking Jóska or the national institution), but realistically, she is not in the right position to challenge the status quo, in lieu, she smartly capitalizes on her savoir-faire to get things undone, actions are louder than words, Kata is a heroine that we can all emulate.
Meanwhile, Anna is mutable and rebellious, also sensuous and daring, played by Vigh with a pixieish alertness and unabashed mystique, her fate is also sagely open to interpret, when we last see her, her matrimony might not be a manna from heaven as we reckon, some cracks already materialize, still, it is her own journey from then on, for better or worse. In the end of the day, a massive shout-out to Mészáros’ fearless film whose ideological maturity and perspicacity are head and shoulders above its peers, not to mention, it is such a well-honed film that leave audience transfixed by its intimist pulchritude.
referential entries: László Nemes’s SON OF SAUL (2015, 7.4/10); Ildikó Enyedi’s MY TWENTIETH CENTURY (1989, 7.2/10).