A bleak, joyless tale of Stalinist purges in Hungary during the 1943-1956 period, starring Czinkoczi as a teenage Hungarian girl whose father disappears in the Soviet Union after being arrested without explanation. When Czinkoczi's mother dies, she returns to Hungary to live with Polony,
a former revolutionary and now a deeply political newspaper editor. Polony's strong political convictions turn Czinkoczi away. The young girl retreats to afternoons in movie houses with Polony's friend, Nowicki, a factory worker who eventually ends up in prison for his beliefs. Czinkoczi pays
regular visits to Nowicki in his cell because he reminds her of her father (in fact he is played by the same actor in flashbacks).
DIARY FOR MY CHILDREN is a profoundly moving and political picture, mainly because director Meszaros has brought her own experiences to the screen. She, like the young heroine in the movie, was separated from her father (sculptor Laszlo Meszaros) in 1938 and returned to Hungary in 1946.
Surprisingly honest politically (Meszaros makes use of actual newsreel footgage intercut with the drama), DIARY FOR MY CHILDREN is a film that probably would have resulted in the director's imprisonment, had she been able to make it at all, in more oppressive times. Awarded the Special Jury Prize
at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival as well as the Grand Prize at the National Film Festival in Hungary. leave a comment