Get the latest gossip
‘The Hungarian Dressmaker’ Review: A Seamstress Feels Hemmed in by Authoritarianism in Taut Slovakian Drama
Director Iveta Grófová makes shrewd decisions in his World War II drama, which marks Slovakia's Oscar submission.
Although Krištúfek had always intended a story of survival, Grófová seems well aware that strictly following the source material might’ve produced a more familiar film when Marika (Alexandra Borbély) is tasked with hiding a young Jewish boy named Šimon (Nico Klimek) to spare him from a surely tragic fate should he fall into the wrong hands. She may pretend to be his mother for his safety, but she takes a sharper tone with him in private than if they actually had that connection and almost immediately upon arriving in the village of Biskupice, Šimon is forced into hiding out an abundance of caution when the Hlinka Guard comes calling to confiscate any possessions of value to Marika. Grófová takes advantage of the unique historical setting of the short-lived First Slovak Republic, afforded independence because of their support of Nazi Germany and hardly representative of the people that lived there, exposing the blind spots for both the guards sent into communities and those they were sent to patrol.
Or read this on Variety
