Kata Wéber

Kata Wéber is a Hungarian screenwriter, playwright and former actress who often works with her husband, director Kornél Mundruczó. Wéber wrote White God (2014), Jupiter's Moon (2017) and Pieces of a Woman (2020).^[1][2]

Kata Wéber attended the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest.^[3] She began her career as an actress, before moving into playwriting. Already knowing director Kornél Mundruczó, Wéber collaborated with him in theatre.^[2] When Mundruczó began working in film, Wéber joined him, writing for White God and Jupiter's Moon.^[3][4] However, the pair say that when they collaborate they "leave each other to work. [They] don't disturb each other. [They] have to agree on a topic and on the approach how to do it but then [they] have [their] own territories."^[4]

She was invited to write a play for the TR Warszawa in 2017,^[5] which became Pieces of a Woman after Mundruczó read her notes about child loss and encouraged her to write about it,^[6][7] which she says became like therapy^[2] though she had initially resisted turning the "too personal" experience into a play. To write it, she moved to Berlin, deliberately far away from Mundruczó and their daughter.^[4] In December 2018 they premiered the play in Warsaw.^[2] Mundruczó said Wéber's notes "were the most personal and the most beautiful writing by Kata [he] ever read".^[4]

Wéber is married to Mundruczó, whom she met when she was an actress at university around the year 2000.^[2][5] They have experienced a miscarriage, which inspired the play and film Pieces of a Woman.^[6] They did not talk about the loss until making the play. They have a daughter.^[4][5] The couple also advocate for the arts in Hungary; after their alma mater was taken over by the government, they wore protest T-shirts at the 77th Venice International Film Festival, where Pieces of a Woman premiered.^[8]

She is Jewish and the child of Holocaust survivors.^[8][9]

• Kata Wéber at IMDb