A Béla Tarr Retrospective: Will Heaven Fall Upon Us?

Sátántangó

Béla Tarr reinvents cinematic time in an innovative modern masterpiece.

Please note: the film starts at 11pm, finishes at 7am, with 2 x 20min interval breaks.

Content warning: This film contains scenes of animal cruelty and infant death.

  • Director

    Béla Tarr

  • With

    Mihály Vig, Putyi Horvath, Lászlo Lugossy, Eva Almassy Albert, János Derzsi

  • Hungary 1994. 439min + 2 x 20min intervals

  • Digital 4K (restoration)

  • Certificate

    15

  • English subtitles

Voted for in Sight & Sound’s 2022 Greatest Films poll by directors Barry Jenkins and Peter Strickland, Sátántangó has claims to visionary greatness, not least for reinventing the nature of cinematic time. Tarr’s seven-hour adaptation of Krasznoharskai’s novel recounts the travails of a disillusioned community following their quasi-messianic leader’s return from exile. The film makes both time and space elastic, weaving incantatory dialogue, hypnotic music and obsessive, drunken dance sequences into a dark vision as intricate as the spiderwebs that are a key motif throughout.

Content warning: Contains scenes of animal cruelty and infant death.

Tickets VIP seating £23, Premium seats £22, Standard £20.

Find out more about our Béla Tarr Retrospective: Will Heaven Fall Upon Us?

Also available on BFI Player

See a screening of this film at BFI Southbank.