The Heiresses

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• 1980
• 1 hr 45 mins
• Drama, Action & Adventure

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• Watchlist

Budapest in 1936, amid a tense political climate marked by the rise of fascism and antisemitism in Europe. Szilvia, a young woman from a wealthy bourgeois family, is married to Ákos, a high-ranking army officer. Unable to have children and aware that her family inheritance depends on the birth of an heir, she turns to her close friend Irène, a Jewish dressmaker, asking her to conceive a child with her husband. Szilvia proposes a moral and financial "agreement" so that the child will legally be hers. At first, the plan appears to work, but the situation soon becomes complicated: Irène and Ákos develop genuine feelings for one another, unsettling the relationship between the three protagonists. Meanwhile, the political atmosphere grows harsher as Hungary aligns itself with Nazi Germany, fascism gains ground, and persecution of Jews intensifies. When the Wehrmacht occupies Hungary in 1944, the characters' personal and emotional choices collide with the brutality of history, leading to tragic consequences for Irène and her husband.