"... excellent... " --Slavic Review "... displays a depth of scholarship and breadth of research which in the main is distilled into a fascinating read. At last Mészáros is getting the attention she deserves." --Sight and Sound "Drawing on personal reminiscences, interviews with Meszaros, and critiques of individual films, Portuges delineates in detailed and convincing fashion the cultural contradictions surrounding Meszaros and her art." --Signs "This book provides engaging insight to works by one of Hungary's best contemporary filmmakers, Márta Mészáros." --Canadian Slavonic Papers A fascinating exploration of the culture of post-Stalinist Eastern Europe through a detailed study of the achievements of its foremost woman director--and revealing interviews with the filmmaker and her collaborators. Márta Mészáros's visual representations of youth, sexual difference, and class conflict challenged official socialist versions of gender, family relations, and workers' lives. Her films include documentaries and features and the recently completed Diary of My Father and Mother.