Reuters — Hungarian filmmaker tells domestic slave’s story — and helps her escape / “The heart-breaking story of Marish shows the reality of millions of women trapped in slavery across the world … All too often, slavery is also hidden in plain sight”

A WOMAN CAPTURED TRAILER — Sun­dance Doc­u­men­tary Com­pe­ti­tion 2018 from Éclipse Film on Vimeo.

A Euro­pean woman has been kept by a fam­i­ly as a domes­tic slave for 10 years. She is one of over 45 mil­lion vic­tims of mod­ern day slav­ery today. Draw­ing courage from the film­mak­er’s pres­ence, she decides to escape the unbear­able oppres­sion and become a free person.

Being held as a slave in Europe today seems impos­si­ble. Yet mil­lions of peo­ple do. Mar­ish, 52, has been held cap­tive by a fam­i­ly for 10 years and is forced to work with­out pay. She has for­got­ten what free­dom looks like and has lost all will to escape. Draw­ing courage from the direc­tor’s pres­ence, she decides to escape unbear­able oppres­sion and regain her free­dom. This film tells the fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ry of a human being who recov­ers his dig­ni­ty and his faith in life.

Être retenu comme esclave en Europe aujourd’hui, cela sem­ble impos­si­ble. Pour­tant, c’est le cas de mil­lions de per­son­nes. Mar­ish, 52 ans, est retenue cap­tive par une famille depuis 10 ans et est for­cée de tra­vailler sans recevoir de rémunéra­tion. Elle a oublié ce à quoi ressem­ble la lib­erté et a per­du toute volon­té de s’en­fuir. Tirant courage de la présence de la réal­isatrice, elle décide d’échap­per à l’op­pres­sion insup­port­able et de recou­vr­er sa lib­erté. Ce film racon­te l’histoire pas­sion­nante d’un être humain qui retrou­ve sa dig­nité et sa foi en la vie.

2017, Hun­gary — Germany
ÉCLIPSE FILM, CORSO FILM

http://www.eclipsefilm.hu/2017/11/the-hungarian-documentary-womancaptured.html

The Hun­gar­i­an doc­u­men­tary, A Woman Cap­tured to com­pete at the 2018 Sun­dance Film Festival

30^th Novem­ber 2017, Budapest — A Woman Cap­tured, direct­ed by Bernadett Tuza-Rit­ter, will com­pete in the World Cin­e­ma Doc­u­men­tary pro­gram at the 2018 Sun­dance Film Fes­ti­val. The Sun­dance Film Fes­ti­val takes place Jan­u­ary 18–28 with screen­ings in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sun­dance Moun­tain Resort, Utah. The Sun­dance Film Fes­ti­val has intro­duced glob­al audi­ences to some of the most ground-break­ing films of the past three decades, includ­ing Boy­hood, Beasts of the South­ern Wild, Fruit­vale Sta­tion, Whiplash, The End of the Tour, Lit­tle Miss Sun­shine, Reser­voir Dogs, An Incon­ve­nient Truth, Pre­cious and Napoleon Dyna­mite.

The doc­u­men­tary film titled A Woman Cap­tured is the first Hun­gar­i­an fea­ture-length film to ever com­pete at Sun­dance. It pre­miered ear­li­er this Novem­ber at one of the world’s most pres­ti­gious doc­u­men­tary film fes­ti­vals, IDFA (Inter­na­tion­al Doc­u­men­tary Film Fes­ti­val Ams­ter­dam). The film inves­ti­gates one of the most shock­ing phe­nom­e­na of our times, mod­ern-day slav­ery, and tells the sto­ry of a Euro­pean woman, Mar­ish. She is one of the over 45 mil­lion peo­ple who are sub­ject to some form of slav­ery in the world today, 1.2 mil­lion of them in Europe.

Bernadett Tuza-Rit­ter said, “We are excit­ed to bring A Woman Cap­tured to Park City and can­not wait for the Sun­dance Film Fes­ti­val audi­ence to see it. We hope that the inter­na­tion­al pres­ence of our film will help peo­ple around the world real­ize the fact that slav­ery is hap­pen­ing in their own sur­round­ings. It is not just a third world prob­lem. It’s every­where. The loca­tion where I shot was not hid­den or on the periph­ery of civ­i­liza­tion – it was in the mid­dle of Europe. Whether forced labor, domes­tic servi­tude or pros­ti­tu­tion, we have to deal with the phe­nom­e­na of mod­ern slav­ery: depriv­ing a human-being from his or her free­dom is incon­ceiv­able and unac­cept­able in the 21^st century.”

Tamás Kol­larik, mem­ber of the Hun­gar­i­an Media Coun­cil and coor­di­na­tor of the Hun­gar­i­an Media Patron­age Pro­gramme said, „It is always a great plea­sure to see a Hun­gar­i­an film screened at an inter­na­tion­al fes­ti­val. The fact that a film direct­ed by a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the young gen­er­a­tion of Hun­gar­i­an doc­u­men­tary film­mak­ing – that has strong and long-stand­ing tra­di­tions – makes us all even more hap­py and proud. I con­grat­u­late the direc­tor and the pro­duc­ers in the name of the Hun­gar­i­an­Media Patron­age Pro­gramme: we wish them fur­ther suc­cess­es in the inter­na­tion­al fes­ti­val scene.”

The Hun­gar­i­an-Ger­man copro­duc­tion was pro­duced by Hun­gar­i­an Éclipse Film and Ger­man CORSO Film in the frame­work of the Hun­gar­i­an Media Patron­age Pro­gramme man­aged by the Hun­gar­i­an Media Coun­cil, with the sup­port of the Cre­ative Europe Pro­gramme – Media Of The Euro­pean Union and the Ger­man Film Und Medi­en­s­tiftung NRW. The film was devel­oped with the sup­port of the 2017DOK.INCUBATOR work­shop. The inter­na­tion­al dis­trib­u­tor of the film is Syn­di­ca­do.

Media con­tact:

Natália Fábics

Éclipse Film

press@eclipsefilm.hu

+36309244224

SYNOPSIS

A Woman Cap­tured is about Mar­ish, a 52-year-old Hun­gar­i­an woman who has been serv­ing a fam­i­ly for a decade, work­ing 20 hours a day, with­out get­ting paid. Her ID was tak­en from her by her oppres­sors, and she is not allowed to leave the house with­out per­mis­sion. Treat­ed like an ani­mal, she only gets left­overs to eat and no bed to sleep in.

Mar­ish spends the days with fear in her heart, but dream­ing of get­ting her life back.

The pres­ence of the cam­era helps her real­ize she isn’t com­plete­ly alone. She begins to show signs of trust; after 2 years of shoot­ing, she gath­ers her courage and reveals her plan: “I am going to escape.”

The film fol­lows Marish’s hero­ic jour­ney back to freedom.