Diary for My Father and My Mother

Diary for My Father and My Mother

1990 · 119 min · ★ 6.6 · Drama

This story follows a young student, who is orphaned as she grows to adulthood in the shadow of the 1956 Hungarian uprising. Coming from the Communist intelligentsia, she sees her friends and family react differently. Her lover, a married factory manager, supports the patriots and later assists fellow workers in staging a strike. Meanwhile her sister and others express anger at being forced from their homes during the revolution and continue to express a hatred for the rebels afterwards. But in the end they realize that for all people, real life is not possible after the revolt and its brutal suppression by the Soviets and their collaborators.

Directed by Márta Mészáros · Written by Márta Mészáros

Your Rating

Where to Watch

Streaming

Cast

Make it a double feature

4h 14m together

Diary for My Father and My Mother

Diary for My Loves

Both from Márta Mészáros.

Diary CollectionSee all →

Diary for My Children

Diary for My Children · 1984

Diary for My Children

After having lost her parents, young Juli returns from the Soviet Union to her native Budapest. Scarred by the wounds of the past, the ghost of Stalin’s oppression haunts her as she reunites with her aunt and adoptive mother Magda.

Diary for My Loves

Diary for My Loves · 1987

Diary for My Loves

A continuation of "Diary for My Children," the film picks up in 1950, when Juli, the diarist, is 18 and determined to become a movie director.

More from Márta MészárosSee all →

The Land of Mirage

The Land of Mirage · 1983

The Land of Mirage

MovieDramaComedy

Officer Karikas from Petersburg should be in Saratov with her servant,in the way he played cards and losing much,even to stuck in the hotel.Local officials took him for anticipated auditor.With this error starting a chain of events.

At the End of September

At the End of September · 1974

At the End of September

Young Petőfi Zoltán the son of the great Hungarian poet, Petőfi Sándor, feels as though he were a stranger in the house of his mother and stepfather. Off he goes, finding work in Debrecen, where his theatrical and literary career and love all seem to be on their way.

Blow-Ball

Blow-Ball · 1965

A day in the solitary life of Pista, a single child of divorced parents. The boy skips school and explores the city of Budapest by himself, yet can't escape an unbearable ennui. Like Mészáros's ADOPTION, this early short film explores the themes of broken family bonds; it also offers insight into the origins of the director’s career.

Salesmanship

Salesmanship · 1960

MovieDocumentary

Socialist industry manufactures only those products absolutely required by workers, citizens purchase only those items essential for their everyday lives – claims the film, thereby differentiating the operational principles of domestic industry and trade from those of capitalist countries.

Diary for My Loves

Diary for My Loves · 1987

Diary for My Loves

A continuation of "Diary for My Children," the film picks up in 1950, when Juli, the diarist, is 18 and determined to become a movie director.

Everyday Stories

Everyday Stories · 1955

Everyday Stories

MovieDocumentaryDrama

Short movie by Marta Meszaros

At the Lőrinc Spinnery

At the Lőrinc Spinnery · 1972

At the Lőrinc Spinnery

MovieDocumentary

A candid portrait of the women working at the Lőrinc spinning mill. As with so many of Mészáros’ shorts, this work has foundations in autobiography, and she would later return to this particular world in one of her fiction features.

Diary for My Children

Diary for My Children · 1984

Diary for My Children

After having lost her parents, young Juli returns from the Soviet Union to her native Budapest. Scarred by the wounds of the past, the ghost of Stalin’s oppression haunts her as she reunites with her aunt and adoptive mother Magda.

The Inheritance

The Inheritance · 1980

The Inheritance

During the rising of nazism, Sylvia, a rich but sterile woman, needs an heir to inherit her father's money. So she bribes Irene, a Jewish girl, to have a child by her husband.

Aurora Borealis: Northern Light

Aurora Borealis: Northern Light · 2017

Aurora Borealis: Northern Light

The Aurora Borealis is a story of family that is rich in twists and turns. It breaks the depths of the relationship between mother and daughter. A successful lawyer in Vienna, Olga is called back to Hungary when her old mother, Mary suddenly falls into a coma. While Mary is floating between life and death, Olga finds a deeply silent secret. The increasingly passionate research leads back to the post-war Europe of the '50s.

The Seventh Room

The Seventh Room · 1996

The Seventh Room

An expressionist biography of Edith Stein, who converted from the Jewish faith to the Catholic one and became a Carmelite sister. She would die in a German concentration camp.

Riddance

Riddance · 1973

Jutka, a young woman who works in a factory, falls in love with Andras, a university student. She pretends to be a student, to him and to his parents, and begins to live a lie. Finally she rebels against Andras and his demands and the social conventions that forced her to live a lie.

The Two of Them

The Two of Them · 1978

The Two of Them

Looking for a safe place to live after being harassed by her husband, a depressive and violent man, Juli stays at a women's shelter run by Mária.

Nine Months

Nine Months · 1976

Juli, who works in a brick factory, begins a romantic relationship with her boss, to whom she hides the fact that she has a son.

Bye Bye, Red Riding Hood

Bye Bye, Red Riding Hood · 1989

Bye Bye, Red Riding Hood

MovieFamilyFantasy

Fanny lives in the forest with her meteorologist mother. One day on her way across the forest to visit her grandmother and great grandmother, she has three encounters that will change her life forever: an apparently kind and gentle wolf, a city boy and an ornithologist who bears a striking resemblance to the father who long ago abandoned her and her mother.

Don’t Cry, Pretty Girls!

Don’t Cry, Pretty Girls! · 1970

Don’t Cry, Pretty Girls!

MovieDramaMusic

Savanyú and his friend work at a plant. After the monotonous shifts they engage in the pleasures of the afternoon and the night, i.e. parties and concerts. Savanyú dates Juli, they are already engaged. The young men live as sub-tenants, the young women in workers' hostels. None of these places are suited for spending time together. They are in need of an apartment. Out of the ruinous apartment which they lay siege on, however, they are sent away by the otherwise friendly policeman. At a concert held in the Park of Youth, Juli gets to know Géza. They flirt, then go to the country with a pop-group. Savanyú and his friends follow them. A minor fight cools the atmosphere.

More Like This

The Nativity Story

The Nativity Story · 2006

The Nativity Story

Mary and Joseph make the hard journey to Bethlehem for a blessed event in this retelling of the Nativity story. This meticulously researched and visually lush adaptation of the biblical tale follows the pair on their arduous path to their arrival in a small village, where they find shelter in a quiet manger and Jesus is born.

Swept from the Sea

Swept from the Sea · 1998

Swept from the Sea

MovieDramaRomance

The film tells the story of Russian emigree and the only survivor from ship crash Yanko Goorall and servant Amy Foster in the end of 19th century. When Yanko enters a farm sick and hungry after the shipwreck, everyone is afraid of him, except for Amy, who is very kind and helps him. Soon he becomes like a son for Dr. James Kennedy and romance between Yanko and Amy follows.

The Last Mistress

The Last Mistress · 2007

The Last Mistress

MovieDramaRomance

Secrets, rumors and betrayals surround the upcoming marriage between a young dissolute man and virtuous woman of the French aristocracy.

Delicious

Delicious · 2025

MovieThrillerDrama

During their vacation in the French countryside, a wealthy German family becomes entangled with a young hotel worker harboring sinister intentions.

Liberty Stands Still

Liberty Stands Still · 2002

Liberty Stands Still

MovieThrillerAction

As the heir and current marketing director for one of the nation's biggest gun manufacturers, Liberty Wallace is indifferent to the atrocities made possible through her business and her CEO husband, Victor. On her way to see her actor lover, Liberty ends up chained to a food cart full of explosives -- all at the insistence of "Joe", a sniper whose young daughter was a victim of gun violence, and who now has Liberty in his sights.

Sound of Falling

Sound of Falling · 2025

Sound of Falling

Four adolescent girls each spend their youth in the same farmhouse over the last century. Though separated by decades, resonances between their lives emerge: their desires and distress, secrets and truths, encounters with another’s gaze and defiant gaze in return.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter