Martin Scorsese: “Béla Tarr is among the bravest artists in cinema.”
Between 2001 and 2019, Art Film Fest has honoured 43 prominent personalities, domestic and foreign professionals in a wide variety of professions related to the world of the silver screen. From directors, camera operators, film editors, costume designers, set designers, music composers to script editors, scriptwriters and film critics and publicists. They will be joined at the 29th Art Film Fest by Béla Tarr, one of Hungary’s best-known and most internationally acclaimed film makers.
Art director of the festival, Martin Palúch : “The author position of Béla Tarr is particularly exceptional. As he says himself, he never wanted to be a film maker, but rather a philosopher. His thinking through film is uncompromising, visionary, and therefore unique. On one hand, Tarr dealt with the failure of man, the fragility of his relationships with others, but he did not deal with this on the level of traditional realistic film narrative, a specific social reality. He gradually began to explore human characters from an ontological point of view. He gets rid of words, what remains are mainly suggestive, long shots that distract the viewer from measuring time and draw him into the depths of a man’s inner struggles. He did not shoot much, all the more he developed his visual style, the manner of composing images, their composition, rhythm, blending with the music. Tarr’s cinematic method resonates in the work of other great contemporary film makers, from Gus Van Sant to Bence Fliegauf.”
Two of his iconic films will be screened at the festival. The first will be a seven-and-a-half-hour-long magnum opus called Satanic Tango from 1994, based on László Krasznahorkai’s novel of the same name. The length of the film alone will make this screening a unique festival event in its own right. The second will be Werckmeister’s Harmonies from 2000, also based on the same writer. Both films have been screened in restored 4K form at the prestigious Berlin and Toronto film festivals in recent years.
Directorial filmography of Béla Tarr (born 21 July 1955 in Pécs) includes 10 feature films, one of which is a TV adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Since 1988 he has shot exclusively on black and white film stock. In addition to his own work, his teaching activities, which include several film colleges, are exceptional. He is the recipient of Hungary’s highest cultural (Kossuth Prize) and film (Béla Balázs Prize) honours, as well as numerous state honours and awards at film festivals around the world. He is the president of the Hungarian Film Association.
“In cooperation with the Brak publishing house, the first Slovak translation of the novel Satanic Tango will be opened during the festival on 20 June in the Artforum bookstore in Košice, with the personal participation of the director. We are also preparing an author’s masterclass presented by Béla Tarr,” says Martin Palúch, the winner of the Golden Camera AFF 2023.
Filmography of Béla Tarr
2011 The Turin Horse
2007 The Man from London
2000 Werckmeister Harmonies
1994 Satan’s Tango
1988 Damnation
1985 Almanac of Fall
1982 The Prefab People
1981 The Outsider
1979 Family Nest
Organisation: ART FILM FEST s.r.o.;
Co-organizers: City of Košice, K13 – Košice cultural centers, ART FILM FEST, n.o., LGM, s.r.o.;
The festival was financially supported by: Audiovisual Fund and SPP Foundation;
The festival is co-financed by the Košice self-governing region from the Terra Incognita program;
Main advertising partners: CODES Brand House, FORLIVE;
Official vehicles: Auto Gábriel;
Official hotel: Hotel Yasmin;
Advertising partners: construction company Adefex, Jadrová a kraďovacia spoločnost, a.s., U. S. Steel Košice, ANTIK Telecom, Cinema Úsmev, Aupark Košice, Fors-stav, R-media, Okno mé lásky;
Official contractor: BARZZUZ, NOV, ZEBRA, Best Press, SLOVNAFT, Central European Foundation, Cinema Veritas;
Main media partners: TV JOJ, zregionu.sk, Pravda, Eurotelevision;
Media partners: Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska, Kinosála, JOJ 24, Film Europe, TV spolok LOToS, Rádio KOŠICE, Korzár, Slovenka, Forbes, SITA, TASR, BigMedia, HomeMedia Production, Film.sk, Košice City Guide, Košice v Skratke;
Partners: JOJ Cinema, Millor – your partner in the field of energy, Airport Košice, Autocont, TelekomCLOUD, ECO Technologies, DELTA OnLine, MIHYRING, KAIFER attorney’s office, Taper, Brother, GROTTO, CELIMED authorised representative of OMRON, NR-holding, CPK Slovakia, Casa Trade, easylog transport&logistic