Please note: This was screened in July 2023
This little-seen and long unavailable Hungarian masterpiece is a brooding journey into the heart of man.
An experienced detective (Péter Haumann) arrives at a small town out in the Hungarian plains to investigate a series of child murders. There he finds no easy answers, but instead an all-consuming quest for vengeance that only leaves misery in its wake.
Shot in stark black and white, with austere long-takes reminiscent of Fehér collaborator Béla Tarr, the beguiling, nihilistic transcendence of Twilight crawls across the screen like the Hungarian fog in autumn time. Adapted from the same source novel as The Pledge (the 2001 film directed by Sean Penn and starring Jack Nicholson), this is a sombre, dark vision from one of Hungary’s forgotten masters.
A new 4K restoration by the National Film Institute – Hungarian Film Archive and FilmLab, supervised by Gurbán. With thanks to Second Run who are releasting the restoration on Blu-ray.