Bela Tarr, Maker of Slow Black-and-White Epics, Dies at 70

Bela Tarr, a Hungarian filmmaker known for slow-moving black-and-white epics including Satantango and Werckmeister Harmonies, died on Monday, Jan. 6, 2026, in a hospital in Budapest. He was 70. His stepdaughter, Reka Gaborjani, said he had died after a series of "long and serious" illnesses.

Mr. Tarrs experimental films probed day-to-day living and the dignity of marginal characters with extended single shots that often lasted minutes; the average shot in Satantango is about two-and-a-half minutes compared with two-and-a-half seconds in a conventional Hollywood film.

His bleak rural settings and slow pace made him a critics and festival favorite; Susan Sontag called Satantango "enthralling," Manohla Dargis called it "his masterpiece," and A.O. Scott said there was always "something ancient and ageless" about his work, though his films did not win wide popular acceptance in the United States or Europe.

He adapted novels by Laszlo Krasznahorkai for Satantango (1994) and Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), and Krasznahorkai collaborated on the script for his final feature, The Turin Horse (2011), which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival. At the Berlin awards Mr.

Key Topics

Culture, Bela Tarr, Budapest, Satantango, Werckmeister Harmonies, Laszlo Krasznahorkai