the satantango seems to be a dance between characters forced to live together on a collective farm in hungary. in this claustrophobic space jealousy, guilt, anger play out between the characters as each looks for ways in which to escape but are held in place by their own greed and insecurity. a saviour arrives in the form of a charismatic partner of their who had disappeared a year and half back. he herds them together like the cattle they are and makes them follow him towards a distant dream. these apparitions of a better future built on collectivism keep each individual in a perpetual state of stillness. nothing is moving here. shot in murky black and white the film moves at a glacial pace through its more than 7 hours of running time. slow languorous track shots linger over the mundane everyday details and their decrepitude; long slow movements reveal crumbling buildings and a vast empty landscape. at the heart of the film is a chilling murder of a cat and a suicide in a church that for me encapsulated the casual brutality of everyday banalities at the end of utopia.
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