Béla Tarr

11 films · 1978 to 2011
Born 21 July 1955, Pécs, Hungary · Died 6 January 2026

Béla Tarr was a Hungarian film director, screenwriter and producer. His films are distinguished by their stark black-and-white visuals, extended long takes, languid pacing, and an absence of traditional plotting. They explore existential themes and often focus on marginalized, desperate characters in bleak landscapes. He became known as a founding figure of the slow cinema genre, most notably with his influential 1994 film Sátántangó. That film is often in scholarly polls of the greatest films ever made. Debuting with the film Family Nest (1979), Tarr began his directorial career with a brief period of what he refers to as "social cinema", aimed at telling everyday stories about ordinary people, often in the style of cinema vérité. Almanac of Fall (1984) follows the inhabitants of a run-down apartment as they struggle to live together while sharing their hostilities.

Biography adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.

Read more Senses of CinemaTSPDTIMDb

Béla Tarr

Photo: Soppakanuuna, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.

Films

Critical context

21 July, 1955, Pécs, Hungary

More from Hungary