The 2013 Sarajevo Film Festival presented its highest honour - Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award to Béla Tarr.
Béla Tarr started working in film as an amateur,at the age of 16. He directed his first feature film, FAMILY NEST (CSALÁDI TŰZFÉSZEK, 1977) at the age of 22. This film, along with THE OUTSIDER (SZABADGYALOG, 1981) and THE PREFAB PEOPLE (PANELKAPSCOLAT, 1982), constitutes the first phase of Bela Tarr's opus, characterized by social issues and documentary style.
His TV adaptation of Shakespeare's MACBETH (1982), which he filmed in just two shots, announced a change, and a new phase in his creative work. In the mid 1980s, he started a collaboration with the writer László Krasznahoraki, whose works were the basis of Tarr's film DAMNATION (KÁRHOZAT, 1988), SATAN'S TANGO (SÁTÁNTANGÓ, 1994) and WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES (WERCKMEISTER HARMÓNIÁK, 2000).
DAMNATION marked the beginning of a visual style for which he is known today: a distinctive black-and-white photographic approach, and long, slow shots, which culminated in the seven-and-a-half hour long adaptation of Krasznahoraki's novel, his masterpiece, SATAN'S TANGO.
The film brought him international recognition, and the WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES are no less appreciated. His next film, THE MAN FROM LONDON (THE MAN FROM LONDON, 2007) is based on the novel by Georges Simenon.
The film THE TURIN HORSE (THE TURIN HORSE, 2011), which he announced several years ago as the last film he will make, was presented at the Berlin Film Festival, and was awarded the Grand Jury Prize - the Silver Bear, as well as the FIPRESCI Prize.
Because of his relentlessness, Tarr was never part of mainstream film-making. The film world considers him one of the world's most original and most coveted contemporary authors. His lens manages to capture the impact of historical changes on Hungary - the post-war years of the empire to the Soviet invasion, from the pitiful years under Communism to modern attempts of privatisation. Drawing inspiration from the works of Italian neorealism and the French New Wave, and questioning today's alienation and morality in a provocative way, his films have a strong influence on the younger generation of filmmakers, such as Gus Van Sant and Jim Jarmusch.
