Werckmeister Harmonies (12)

Hungary | 2000 | 139’ | 12 | Béla Tarr | Hungarian and Slovak with English subtitles | Lars Rudolph, Peter Fitz, Hanna Schygulla

In the Hungarian lowlands, during Communist times, a town is unsettled by the arrival of a strange traveling circus. It attracts the interest of the inhabitants who line up by the hundreds to see the main attraction: a stuffed whale hiding a mysterious prince. Beautifully composed in black and white in 39 sensuously long shots (the average for a film is in the hundreds), this is an elusive fable, newly restored for this release.