<b>Book tickets for two or more of our <a href="https://www.filmhouse.org.uk/bla-tarr">Béla Tarr</a> films to receive a discount! Tickets can also be bought separately.</b>
<b>This screening will be in three parts, with two 15-minute long intermissions.</b>
Based on the book by László Krasznahorkai (awarded the Nobel Prize for literature last year), <i>Sátántangó</i> follows members of a small, defunct agricultural collective living in a post-apocalyptic landscape after the fall of Communism who, on the heels of a large financial windfall, set out to leave their village. As a few of the villagers secretly conspire to take off with all of the earnings for themselves, a mysterious character, long thought dead, returns to the village, altering the course of everyone’s lives forever.
<i>Sátántangó</i> is infamous for its intimidating runtime of over 7 hours, including iconic shots such as the introductory eight-minute long tracking sequence of a field of cows. As such, it doesn't often get shown in cinemas, so we are very happy to pay tribute to the work and life of the late Béla Tarr by showing this holy grail for slow cinema in full, in what will probably be a one-off chance to see on the big screen what many consider to be one of the greatest films of all time (#72 in the 2022 Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll, #78 in the <a href="https://boxd.it/8HjM">Letterboxd Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films</a> as of 12/1/2026).
The film follows a 12-part structure, mimicing the scheme of the titular tango dance of six moves forward and six moves back. Mihály Víg, composer and Tarr's longtime collaborator on all films from 1984's <i>Almanac of a Fall</i> to his final film in 2011, <i>The Turin Horse</i>, stars as the once-thought-dead Irimiás.
<b>Content warning: This film contains scenes of animal cruelty and infant death.</b>DramaPT7H12M152026-02-28