Adoption

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Adoption

1975

1h 29m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

100%

Tomatometer

5 Reviews

83%

Popcornmeter

50+ Ratings

When middle-aged Kata (Berek Kati) realizes that her life will only be complete if she has a baby of her own, her longstanding-but-married boyfriend Joska (Laszlo Szabo) refuses to comply. But by developing an unlikely friendship with the angst-ridden teenage orphan Anna (Gyongyver Vigh), who is also involved in a controversial relationship, Kata discovers aspects of herself, and her role as a woman, that have gone unexamined throughout her entire, lonely life.

Carson Lund

Slant Magazine

Adoption emerges as a warm testament to feminine willpower, which isnt to say that its idealistic or unduly celebratory.

Apr 1, 2022

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

A quiet, melancholic portrait of a woman aching for a meaningful relationship which has thus far eluded her, much of Adoption feels like a naturalistic survey of 1970s Hungary.

Rated: 4/5

Mar 30, 2022

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Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

The documentaries she began her career with make their influence felt in this feature’s fly-on-the-wall realism observing ordinary yet stubbornly individual lives.

Mar 28, 2022

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Rob Aldam

Backseat Mafia

An intriguing portrait of loneliness and resistance, the echoes of which still resonate today.

Jul 7, 2021

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

This is a powerful and well-made film.

Rated: A

Jan 1, 2000

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Fra B

Few women (or men) in cinema show as much steadiness and technical expertise as Mézáros, who seems both gifted with natural intuition and profoundly experienced.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/10/22

Full Review

Audience Member

WEB. Su estética sombría y su deliberada intimidad son grandes virtudes, pero la forma bressoniana como las emociones se enmudecen no trabaja a favor de su impacto general. Pudo ser más. / Its somber aesthetics and its deliberate intimacy are great virtues, but the Bresson-like manner in which emotions are muted does not work in favor of its overall impact. Could have been more.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This is a beautiful and subtle film about female friendship and the insidious ways female oppression is woven into the fabric of daily life of Hungarian communist society. Maybe, though, that limits the film: this still seems more relevant, insightful, and timely then just about any other film I've seen in recent years about about women, labor, and maternal yearnings. (It certainly is much smarter and more nuanced than a film like Waitress.) This is one of those films that sinks in wonderfully after you watch it. Marta Meszaros deserves to be much better known.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

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Marta Meszaros

Director

Katalin Berek

Csentesné

Laszlo Szabo

Jóska

Gyongyver Vigh

Bálint Anna

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Synopsis

When middle-aged Kata (Berek Kati) realizes that her life will only be complete if she has a baby of her own, her longstanding-but-married boyfriend Joska (Laszlo Szabo) refuses to comply. But by developing an unlikely friendship with the angst-ridden teenage orphan Anna (Gyongyver Vigh), who is also involved in a controversial relationship, Kata discovers aspects of herself, and her role as a woman, that have gone unexamined throughout her entire, lonely life.

Director: Marta Meszaros
Production Co: Hungarofilm, Hunnia Filmstúdió
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Hungarian
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 5, 2017
Runtime: 1h 29m

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