On the Field of God in 1972-73

When Judit Elek heard some puzzling, if not outright disturbing stories about the daily life of girls and young women in the Hungarian provinces, she immediately travelled to one village, Istenmezején, to find out more about these occurrences.

It was here that young girls were married to miners, only to spend the rest of their lives doing household chores. In Istenmezején, Elek met a group of girls whose lives she decided to follow and document. And with that, a journey lasting several years commenced, during which Elek gained the people’s trust, and finally made what she considers to be her most important work – while irrevocably losing a piece of herself in the process.

A monument of cinéma vérité in which one also gets to see Elek interacting with her subjects, for instance talking in a meadow or acting as a very public confidante. The stories are often shocking – like that of a woman who preferred to work in a factory instead of getting married, because she found the idea of being chained to a violent drunkard for life unbearable – which gives an idea of the life more ordinary in Istenmezején.

– Olaf Möller