The Cinema of Bela Tarr is a critical analysis of the work of
Hungary's most prominent and internationally best known film director,
written by a scholar who has followed Bela Tarr's career through a close
personal and professional relationship for more than twenty-five years.
Andras Balint Kovacs traces the development of Tarr's themes,
characters, and style, showing that almost all of his major stylistic
and narrative innovations were already present in his early films and
that through a conscious and meticulous recombination of and
experimentation with these elements, Tarr arrived at his unique style.
The significance of these films is that, beyond their aesthetic and
historical value, they provide the most powerful vision of an entire
region and its historical situation. Tarr's films express, in their
universalistic language, the shared feelings of millions of Eastern
Europeans.