Sátántangó

One of the greatest achievements in recent art-house cinema and a seminal work of "slow cinema," SÁTÁNTANGÓ, based on the novel by László Krasznahorkai, follows the members of a humble agricultural community living in a bleak and punishing backwater after the fall of Communism. As a few of the villagers secretly conspire to take off with all of the community's annual earnings for themselves, a mysterious messiah, long thought dead, returns to the village and alters the course of everyone's lives forever. Shot in stunning black-and-white by Gábor Medvigy and filled with exquisitely composed long takes, SÁTÁNTANGÓ unfolds in twelve distinct movements, alternating forwards and backward in time, echoing the structure of tango dance. Béla Tarr's vision, aided by long-time partner and collaborator Ágnes Hranitzky, is enthralling and his portrayal of rural Hungary beset by drunken revelry, treachery, and near-perpetual rainfall is both transfixing and uncompromising. SÁTÁNTANGÓ has been justly lauded by critics and audiences as a masterpiece and has been restored on the occasion of it's 25th anniversary.