In memoriam Béla Tarr

In the year of the dual Capital of Culture, we had decided to award two Darko Bratina Prizes: one to Gianikian and Ricci-Lucchi, and the other to one of the directors we love most, Béla Tarr. Because of health problems, he had been unable to come on the days when the prize took place, and we were planning to postpone the meeting and the award ceremony to February, as a long and slow echo of his extraordinary cinema, made of deep, inexorable movements. We were waiting for him. This morning, instead, there came, like a sad epiphany, the news we never wanted to receive, and which fills us with bitterness. Béla has left us alone with his cinema. He will no longer be able to urge us on with his bitter wisdom, with his tender severity. Our thoughts and our embrace also go to Amila, his extraordinary companion, the one who accompanied him on his final journey.

The king is dead, long live Béla Tarr!