Cinema
The Lady from Constantinople
Sziget a szárazföldön
Judit Elek · 1969
Synopsis
A widow and pensioner, the daughter of a former ship's captain from Fiume, lives alone in the two rooms that remain to her of a large flat, among antique furniture and the memories of a past comfort; twenty years after the war, Budapest is short of housing, and many envy her even this. The caretaker's wife advises her to exchange her flat for a smaller one, first within the building, then across the whole city, and the old lady sets out on viewings and encounters.
Context
This is Elek's first feature film; until then she had been a documentary maker. The idea came to her from the small ads for flat swaps. She wrote the screenplay with the novelist Iván Mándy. Part of the shoot was done with a hidden camera in the streets of Budapest, with Manyi Kiss speaking to the lens in front of bewildered passers-by. Released on 4 September 1969, the film was shown out of competition at Cannes and, in 1969, at the New York festival; restored by the national film institute, it returned to Cannes Classics in 2023.
Who it is for
A little under eighty minutes in black and white, carried by Manyi Kiss; presented in France under the title La Dame de Constantinople.
Prizes and reception
Praised for its realism about the housing crisis in Budapest, it found its audience again thanks to its restoration shown at Cannes in 2023.