Sátántangó

Sátántangó (1994), the masterpiece of Hungarian director Béla Tarr, based on the novel by László Krasznahorkai, follows the final days of a forgotten community living in poverty, stagnation, and broken hopes. Across the Hungarian plains, battered by wind and rain, time itself seems to have stopped. When Irimiás and Petrina — two mysterious figures long thought to be dead — return to the village, the inhabitants cling to the promise of a new start, which soon turns out to be just another illusion. In twelve chapters and long black-and-white sequence shots, Tarr transforms duration into a physical dimension that envelops the viewer. Sátántangó is a hypnotic and all-encompassing experience: a journey into the solitude, failures, and imperfections of the human condition.

On the occasion of the 41st Literaturtage Lana, "und vergeßt mir die Gärten nicht …", a talk with László Krasznahorkai will take place on 27 August at 8:00 PM at Villa Arnica in Lana. Krasznahorkai is the author of the 1985 novel Sátántangó and the recipient of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Original Hungarian version with Italian subtitles.