Lindsey Lowson / 21 July 2025 / Categories: Movie and TV Shows, Movie

The Door a character driven drama carried by the master actor Helen Mirren

A beautiful film that will change the way you think about people and life in general

The 2012 movie the door directed by Istvan Szabo adapted from a Hungarian novel by the same name written by Magda Szabo originally published in Hungarian in 1987. A weird coincidence, like many in this film, Magda Szabó was a renowned Hungarian novelist, while István Szabó is a well-known Hungarian filmmaker. They are both prominent figures in Hungarian arts, but they are not related just share the same last name. The film stars Helen Mirren as an aged loner, cook, housekeeper, and Martina Gedeck as Magda, Karoly Eperjes as Tibor her husband, the master as Emerenc calls him and Agi Szirtes as Polett, Emerenc’s quietly spoken neighbour, whose role in the film is small but extremely powerful and memorable in the story.

When I watched the film I had a peculiar experience as a writer friend of mine had presented a synopsis of a novel to me a week or so earlier entitled “The Door Next Door” and had asked me what the title meant to me, what type of feelings it evoked and whether I would be interested to read it. She gave me an outline of her imagined work of fiction so I literally could not believe it when the same thing was playing out in front of my eyes.

While The Door by Magda Szabo is a work of fiction, it is deeply rooted in autobiographical elements. The novel and the subsequent film explores the complex relationship between the author (represented by the narrator Magda) and her housekeeper, Emerence, drawing heavily from Szabo's own experiences. Many details about the narrator's life, such as her career as a writer, her marriage to an academic, and her relationship with the Hungarian authorities, mirror Szabo's own life

When I asked my friend if she had heard of the film or the book, she told me she never had. It had been a premonition of sorts which for me added to the power and intensity of the film which is brimming with hidden messages and tackles many issues about friendship, character, truth and that overused word love challenging what it actually means in reality outside of the constraints and the simplicity of one dimensional storying telling.

I bet Helen Mirren, a tour de force in this film and as a movie reviewer I use those three words with caution, loved this script and making this film which even surrounded by Hungarian actors she didn’t change her voice or accent to play the housekeeper Emerenc, a rude, stalwart of a women who reminds us “there are people who sweep and there are people who pay others to sweep”

If you are not already a fan of the actress this is the film to watch her shine in all her glory. There are so many fantastic lines in a script where not one line is wasted or thrown away. There is so much nuance in the film crafted with brilliant sets and even better costumes coming together to place you 1970’s Eastern Europe. The decay and outdated post war appearance of a place behind the then iron curtain is resonant.

This tale of two women who form an unlikely friendship draws you in for sure. Our human curiosity for the question to be answered what’s behind the door, the question my writer friend had also pondered, is at the root of the mystery and intrigue of the film. And the film beautifully exposes the darker side of our nature in this regard when it comes to character assignation, gossip, getting the wrong end of the stick and just being generally nosey.

For anyone who is prone to people pleasing, something I confess I have been guilty off, this is a must watch film as it slaps you in the face and presents clearly and intelligently why the temporary and the fake will never fox the instinct of the wise.

It flips a viewpoint common place that the religious and pious. In this story the writer, may take the higher ground and yet in doing so inhabit the lower ground every time. And the rituals of doing the right thing dictated by a society that rarely knows or understands what the right thing actually is will always lead us to regret and resentment not solitary peace and contentment.

The script challenges our understanding of kindness, friendship and ultimately love, and I think the reason the story of Emerenc and her relationship with her employer Magda is so powerful because it tackles everything you think you know and then flips it on it’s head.

Slowly the simplicity of the tale is unravelled, what’s behind the door, amidst neighbours gossip, Chinese whispering, events being twisted and blown out of proportion and flash backs of the truth as Emerenc slowly reveals the truth about her life as her confidence and trust in Magda builds over time.

A truly enigmatic powerful film that will have a lasting impact on anyone who watches. The writers life was clearly impacted and changed by her relationship with the real life housekeeper she was compelled to tell the story, unashamed by her own part in the original story.

For anyone who has embarked on a journey of personal growth or endured great pain and sadness that didn’t overwhelm them or cause them to choose death over life, the film also tackles suicide in a beautiful and clever way, you know you can be exposed without embarrassment or shame. And the writer and the film maker along with the actors present this evolution in a magnificent way.

What a movie where most of the action happens in one house between two people. I can’t remember a movie that said so much in such a contained way.

Like I said when Helen Mirren read the script she said that’s me.

It’s a drama about life on every street, in every neighbourhood in every country about the universal language of truth human beings are so conditioned by the noise around them they often fail to see the wood for the trees.

There are massive lessons in this movie which is why I shall be watching it again very soon.