Riddance
Director: Márta Mészáros Run Time: 81 min. Release Year: 1973 Language: Hungarian
Starring: Erzsébet Kútvölgyi, Gábor Nagy
Mészáros explores class, gender, and generational conflict in RIDDANCE, which stars Erzsébet Kútvölgyi as Jutka, a young factory worker who pretends to be a university student. The ruse retains the romantic interest of András (Nagy), a handsome young man from an upper-middle-class family, but when Jutka reveals her true background their relationship becomes increasingly strained. In representing Hungarian society’s clashing attitudes and prejudices Mészáros depicts a working-class woman’s attempt to overcome the perceived inferiority of her social status as well as her own familial dysfunction and feelings of inadequacy. Following DON’T CRY, PRETTY GIRLS!’ portrait of youthful idealism, RIDDANCE shows with somber compassion the complex societal and cultural barriers that separate the most hopeful of young lovers. – Janus Films





