Satan’s Tango

The story takes place on the Great Hungarian Plain where the protagonists live on an abandoned collective farm that hasn’t produced anything in a long time. Thoughts of escape are the only cure for their awareness of the decay consuming everything. The inhabitants come up with more and more elaborate plans to cheat and hinder one another—until, one day, the “messiah” arrives in the form of a crook and former police informant. Convinced that he will cleanse them of their evil ways and forgive their sins of the past, the protagonists follow him across the plain. Sátántangó is a modernist work by Tarr, which not only boldly continues, but even radicalizes, the contemplative movement represented by Ozu, Antonioni, Tarkowski and Jarmusch. Black-and-white is the answer to the overly saturated chaos of visual culture. Long shots and a lack of cuts are a reaction to the insane tempo of music videos and commercials. The 7.5-hour running time is a response to superficiality, to the demand for a quick response and subliminal impressions. This is a simple story to counteract the aggressiveness of plot. The film’s extraordinary length and pace are means of telling the story, not ends in themselves.

The plan of the screening:
Part I: 145’ (30’ break)
Part II: 130’ (30’ break)
Part III: 170’