The Turín Horse

Based on László Krasznahorkai’s novel The Melancholy of Resistance, the film tells the story of a mysterious circus that arrives in a Hungarian village at a time of great crisis, promising to exhibit the world’s largest whale—and announcing the appearance of a prince with strange powers. Local emotions soon run high and life in this town changes forever.

The film depicts, in close-up, a young couple in crisis, exploring the circumstances that ultimately lead to their break-up. Irén, her husband, and their daughter Krisztike, are squeezed into a suburban room-and-kitchen flat, which they have to share with four other family members as a result of the housing shortages faced by many Eastern European countries under communism. In this impossibly small space, even the tiniest problems result in scathing quarrels and the outcome for the family is inevitably bleak.

Karrer plods his way through life in quiet desperation. His environment is drab, rainy and muddy. Eaten up with solitude, his hopelessness would be unbearable, except for the existence of the Titanik Bar and its beautiful, married singer, who dreams of one day becoming famous. When Karrer is offered a smuggling job by the bartender, he decides to offer it to her husband, Sebastian, hoping that this absence will provide him with an opportunity to get close to the singer.