FAMILY NEST

Irén lives with her daughter in her in-laws’ small apartment in the center of Budapest. Her husband has just returned from his national service, and their relationship is deteriorating. Soon, Irén wants to leave the family—but her rehousing request gets caught up in the Communist administration.

Shot in only five days on a shoestring budget, Béla Tarr’s social-realist debut compares with his later masterworks as a more intimate, but no less damning, indictment of Communist Hungary. Never mind star-crossed lovers: inadequate housing is ruinous to relationships in this newly restored film.