Twenty years ago, a meteorite fell to Earth, and decimated a provincial Russian town. Villagers traveled through this curious area, now known as The Zone, and disappeared. Stories purport that there is an inner chamber within The Zone called The Room that grants one’s deepest wish. Fearing the consequences from such an inscrutable resource, the […]
In the late hours of the evening, the owner of a local tavern attempts to scuttle his lethargic, inebriated patrons out of the establishment in preparation for store closure, only to be derailed by their request to allow an inquisitive and obliging young man named János (Lars Rudolph) to illustrate the process of a solar […]
Sátántangó opens to a languid, insidiously ironic shot of cattle traversing the muddy field of a near desolate, neglected communal farm in rural Hungary, as the cows concurrently attempt to mate during the process of migration. The clumsy and awkward episode is reflected in the fluidly tracked, change of perspective shot of a disheveled, sparsely […]
The occasional, labored sound of inertia and friction emitted by the motion of mining cable cars disrupts the unnerving silence of Karrer’s (Miklós Székely B.) austere and sparsely furnished apartment, as the lethargic electric powered conveyances endlessly traverse along the overcast, desolate landscape, obscured by the density of the fog. Karrer abstractedly stares out the […]
Almanac of Fall opens to a bleak and resigned passage from Aleksandr Pushkin: “Even if you kill me, I see no trace, this land is unknown, the devil is probably leading, going round and round in circles.” In a large, austere, and impersonal apartment, a middle-aged woman named Hédi (Hédi Temessy) recounts with detached acceptance […]
During the Q&A, Jean-Marie Téno remarked that he was inspired to shoot Sacred Places as a result of seeing dramatic changes to the format of the 2009 FESPACO film festival in Burkina Faso, where the practice of holding open-air simulcasts of featured films for public viewing around the festival grounds in Ouagadougou – often, their […]