Béla Tarr's unsettling, sometimes absurd, sometimes striking The Man From London - based on a novel by crime author Georges Simenon - is a film about desire; indestructible longing for a life of freedom and happiness; and illusions never to be realised.
After witnessing a crime during his night shift as railway switchman near the docks, a man finds a briefcase full of money. While he and his family begin to improve their quality of life, others start looking for the disappeared case…
Cinematographer Fred Kelemen, aided by Mihály Vig’s haunting score, perfectly capture an atmosphere of dread and entrapment amid the falling rain, quiet nighttime streets, and crammed kitchens and bars of a small town.