A WOMAN CAPTURED

Dir. Bernadett Tuza-Ritter, Éclipse Film, 89 min, 2017, Hungary/Germany

Hungarian woman Marish has been serving a family for more than ten years. Her work day is twenty hours long, she doesn’t receive compensation, and she isn’t allowed to leave the house without the owner’s permission. She has no passport, no bed and no life of her own anymore. Marish lives in perpetual fear, but slowly things are changing. The film’s director has been documenting Marish’s daily existence for almost two years, and her presence has allowed Marish to renew belief in the fact that she’s not alone, and that she has to act to regain her lost freedom. Marish is ready to escape.

Modern-day slavery is a fact that makes society uncomfortable and is often kept in silence. In Hungary there are currently some 22,000 women who are in a similar situation. In order to get the chance to film Marish, director Tuza-Ritter, in her debut film, paid Marish’s employer Eta one month’s dues.