The Outsider Within: Béla Tarr and Hungarian National Cinema

Authors

  • Lilla Tőke

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/ahea.2016.259

Keywords:

Béla Tarr, national cinema, Hungarian cinema, minor cinema, film politics

Abstract

Béla Tarr is probably the most paradoxical figure in contemporary Hungarian cinema. His artistic trajectory shows a movement from documentary style realism (Family Nest, 1979) towards more modernist cinematic practices (Satan’s Tango, 1994, Werckmeister Harmonies, 2000, and The Man from London, 2007). A major celebrity in the global film culture that prides itself in being transnational, international, and in crossing linguistic and ethnic boundaries, Tarr has consistently found himself on the fringes of the Hungarian cultural and political establishment. In this study Tőke considers Tarr’s films and public persona as catalysts in the debates about what constitutes “Hungarian cinema” in a globalizing world from the 1970s until today.

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Published

2016-10-11

Issue

Section

General Articles