Our dearly beloved Director Of Operations, Martin, is leaving us at the conclusion of this year, so we wanted to give him a proper send-off by letting him program four of his favorite films. First up in his series, entitled The Last Dance, is trailblazing auteur Márta Mészáros’ slice-of-life drama Adoption from 1975.

Through intensely intimate camerawork, Mészáros immerses the viewer in the worlds two women, each searching for fulfillment: Kata (Katalin Berek), a middle-aged factory worker who wishes to have a child with her married lover, and Anna (Gyöngyvér Vigh), a teenage ward of the state determined to emancipate herself in order to marry her boyfriend. The bond that forms between the two speaks quietly but powerfully to the social and political forces that shape women’s lives as each navigates the realities of love, marriage, and motherhood in her quest for self-determination.