Were you surprised to hear ‘Adoption’ would be screening again in Berlin?

Why should I have been surprised? Receiving the Golden Bear was a surprise, but after that the film lived its own – and very successful – life: since winning the grand prize at the Berlinale the film has been shown all around the world. I don’t want to complain but I must say that in other countries these things were not the same as in Hungary: if a film is successful, has won a lot of prizes, has been sold to a lot of countries, then people talk about it a lot. But in Hungary no one talked about ‘Adoption’ and it’s rarely screened today. I am happy when I get messages from time to time from all over the world that it is being screened somewhere, and at the same time I am a bit sad that in Hungary it seems as if it doesn’t exist at all.

Now, the Hungarian Film Fund’s Film Archive and Film Lab restored and digitized the film. Why do you think your film was ignored back then, when it was awarded the Golden Bear? Was it the topic?

I don’t know the reason but I don’t think it’s the topic: it’s a deeply human story about a lonely woman who longs to have a child, but as her lover doesn’t, she adopts one. Even nowadays one can hear millions and millions of these kinds of stories from all around the world. And maybe the film tells this story in a way that can affect people. But I have to say that when I returned to Hungary after the Berlinale people here weren’t too impressed about the prize. Nevertheless, I am very happy that there is a festival like Berlinale; many directors’ careers started there, and if you win a prize you feel that the world of cinema has welcomed you. I return here with a newly restored digital print.

Márta Mészáros (Photo: Gábor Valuska)

I always had a feeling in Berlin that it’s not just a festival with screenings and some glasses of wine afterwards, but that it has an atmosphere of importance: this festival pays attention to the state and current trends of cinema. Berlinale is a bit like the Academy Awards, or maybe even better, because the Oscars is too much about money. Films that win prizes in Berlin are always talking about the world we live in. It’s like the book publishing industry: if you buy books for a long train trip you will just leave some behind on your seat when you get off, but there will be others that you want to embrace, keep and put on your shelf. Cinema is the same: there are films, and then there are Films with a capital F. I don’t want to praise myself, but I am at the end of my life and I have always been honest: yes, ‘Adoption’ is like a book you can put on a shelf and read again whenever you want to. But nowadays Hungarian critics are often unable to evaluate films like that, they are unable to differentiate between films and Films.

What kind of feedback did you receive back then in Berlin?

Again, I can only talk about compliments: everyone was spellbound. Winning the prize was a really big thing: I was the first woman to ever get an important prize at a film festival like that. People from the United States, from Italy, even from Russia surrounded me and congratulated me. And everyone still remembers the film. My grandchildren studied in Berlin, and when people would hear about their grandmother they always named my films, not only ‘Adoption’ but also ‘Diary for My Lovers’ (which won the Silver Bear in Berlin).

Márta Mészáros' Golden Bear (Photo: Gábor Valuska)

Back then, it was really strange even to get to Berlin. There were two Berlins – East and West –, and if you arrived to East Berlin first you had to go through a hole tousling your suitcase behind you to get to West Berlin. This process wasn’t too fancy, but on the other side of the wall you found yourself in another world. I arrived in a Volga and the driver just threw out my suitcase on the concrete for me to pick up. In contrast, once I had crossed the border two gentle persons with flowers and a Mercedes awaited me. That was the difference.

In the 70s and 80s feminist movements considered you as one of the most important directors.

The movement was always important; it still is, and it’s getting bigger and bigger. But back then feminism was more like a word to insult with; the articles’ tone in Hungarian newspapers was something like “Excuse us for this film winning the grand prize but at least the feminist movements like it”. 

This is a film about a lonely woman who works at a factory and wants a child. It has nothing to do with feminist movements; back then I didn’t even know about them. In eastern Europe the movement was maybe only something to mock, but now we already know that it has led to the fact that the United Kingdom has a female prime minister, and from South Africa to the European Union there are women everywhere working in the financial sector and in politics. This all started back then.

Márta Mészáros (Photo: Gábor Valuska)

Will you go to Berlin again for the screening of ‘Adoption’?

Yes, with my grandchildren, but I no longer have any expectations. They called me to tell me everyone will be celebrating me. ‘Adoption’ was important for them too as I was the first female director in the world to win such an important prize. That was a milestone for the festival too, and they were happy to award someone from the Eastern block – back then the relation between the two blocks was rough, the Iron Curtain and the Wall still existed –, especially for a film which was not about politics at all but about a woman who wants to live and to give life. Even the Russians bought the rights of the film and in Moscow people still remember it. The Hungarian Film Fund’s Film Archive just restored the film so I watched it again, and I felt that it hadn’t aged at all, that it could have been made at any point in time. For me, this is the greatest happiness.

Bálint Kovács