Hungarian director, screenwriter, and producer Béla Tarr, known for his films «Satantango» and «The Turin Horse», has died at the age of 70 after a long illness.
Béla Tarr. Photo: European Film Academy
Tarr is considered one of the main representatives of meditative, dark, and melancholic cinema in Europe. His poetic, sometimes politically charged films were distinguished by a pessimistic view of human nature and black humor.
He was born in 1955 in the Hungarian city of Pécs and began his career at the Balázs Béla Studio, a leading platform for experimental cinema in Hungary. International recognition came to him in 1994 after the screening of his seven-hour black-and-white epic «Satantango», dedicated to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, based on one of the novels by László Krasznahorkai, the 2025 Nobel Prize laureate in literature.
In 2000, Tarr adapted another Krasznahorkai novel — «The Melancholy of Resistance», and his last work, «The Turin Horse» (2011), is considered his darkest masterpiece. The film depicts the daily life of a farmer and his daughter and is based on the story of philosopher Nietzsche's nervous breakdown. Its premiere took place at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, where the film received the Jury Grand Prix «Silver Bear».
After the release of «The Turin Horse», Tarr announced his retirement from filmmaking and moved to Sarajevo, where he founded the international film school film.factory. He had been a member of the European Film Academy since 1997, and in 2023, he received the Academy President's Honorary Award.
The European Film Academy noted:
«We mourn an outstanding director and a strong personality with a political stance, who is respected by colleagues and admired by audiences worldwide.»
Comments