Up the Slope. Women’s Mobility Stories in Post-Transition Hungarian Cinema

Abstract

Using data and statistics obtained in the research project The Social History of Hungarian Cinema (1931–2015), this study investigates the upward and downward mobility movements of women in the Hungarian films made after the regime change. The political transition following the collapse of communism radically altered the economic and social structure of Hungarian society. The social experiences of losses and failures, as well as the closing social structure are reflected directly and explicitly in many Hungarian films made between 1990 and 2015. With the help of Bernard Weiner’s social attribution theory for describing failure and success, the article analyses the narratives of these films in terms of the extent to which and the proportion that they are attributed to inner, individual dispositions or external circumstances. Based on this approach, the author states that female heroines in these movies appear to move “up the slope,” as they are pulled down not only by the gravitational force of economic and social crises, but also by the lack of emancipation and gender equality.

Keywords

• hungarian cinema
• change of regime
• social mobility
• female protagonists
• statistical data analysis