Satantango (1994) – Filming Locations
Drama · Directed by Béla Tarr · Starring Mihály Víg, Erika Bók
Inhabitants of a small village in Hungary deal with the effects of the fall of Communism. The town's source of revenue, a factory, has closed, and the locals, who include a doctor and three couples, await a cash payment offered in the wake of the shuttering. Irimias, a villager thought to be dead, returns and, unbeknownst to the locals, is a police informant. In a scheme, he persuades the villagers to form a commune with him.
Where was Satantango filmed?
- Hegyeshalom, Hungary, Hegyeshalom – The entire film unfolds in this desolate former military settlement where the residents gather. The primary location for this seven-hour slow-cinema masterpiece; Tarr chose this actual abandoned Hungarian military complex to create the film's bleak, post-communist atmosphere and urban decay
- Szeged, Hungary, Szeged – Establishing shots and landscape sequences of the wider Hungarian industrial region. The broader Szeged region provided contextual cinematography for Tarr's vision of post-1989 Hungarian desolation and economic collapse