‘A woman wanting to make films was a joke’: Márta Mészáros, pioneering Hungarian director

The Golden Bear winner is 90 this year. As a showcase of her films plays in London, she reflects on her career, from documentaries to dramas, and the impact of censorship

Marta Meszaros, the pioneering Hungarian film-maker who turns 90 in September, has always looked young for her age. When she wanted to study film in her home country in the late 1940s, she was told: We don't need anyone from kindergarten!" She spoke fluent Russian, having lived in Russia for much of her childhood, so she went to Moscow instead, where gender was the sticking point. There were not so many female film-makers in those days," she tells me by phone. A woman wanting to have that career was a joke. The men were all laughing at me." How did she respond? Ah, I was laughing, too," she says, a trace of slyness in her voice.