九个月的爱情

Juli moves to the big city in order to take up a job in a factory, and on the very same day the foreman János asks her to marry him. Alas, communication between the two is rough going from the very start – their visions of how life together is supposed to look divide them. János can’t find it in his heart to accept Juli’s yearning for independence or her past. In raw images that portend an almost predetermined conclusion with their social-realist tone, the film shows Juli’s resistance with all of its consequences – she decides to have her baby all on her own. In the end, we witness the actual delivery of Juli’s (in reality of course actress Lili Monori’s) child, the first birth to be shown in a film in Europe. Nine Months was honoured with the Fipresci Prize (Parallel Sections) in Cannes in 1977. Since my first film « Cati », I have been obstinately inquiring about women with well defined personalities, able to make decisions in an independent manner, although at that time « feminism » was not really in vogue. It has now become so. The heroine of my film is one of these women. She is lucid, self-relying, and responsible. She tells the man who loves her that he must accept her as she is, with her past life, her experiences, her already formed personality. - Marta MESZAROS