Cinema
Diary for My Children
Napló gyermekeimnek
Márta Mészáros · 1984
Synopsis
Juli, an orphaned teenager whose parents had emigrated to the Soviet Union, returns to Hungary in 1947. She is taken in by Magda, her aunt, a communist who runs a penal institution and wants to instil her convictions in her. Juli slips away, spends her days at the cinema, and finds refuge with János, a free-minded relative, while images of her missing parents return.
Context
First part of an autobiographical trilogy, the film transposes the youth of its director, whose father was executed during the Stalinist purges. Mészáros wrote the screenplay with Balázs Fakan, and Nyika Jancsó is credited with the black-and-white photography. Zsuzsa Czinkóczi plays Juli, Anna Polony plays Magda, and Jan Nowicki plays both János and the father. Archive footage and flashbacks are mixed into the narrative.
Who it is for
A drama without colour, spoken in Hungarian and Russian, interspersed with archive footage; released in France on DVD by Clavis Films under the title Journal intime.
Prizes and reception
Special Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1984, and shown again at Cannes Classics in 2021.