Damnation(CA Retro)

Beside his penchant for long takes, majestic mise-en-scene and pitch-black melancholia, Béla Tarr’s films mirror Chantal Akerman’s in their bold and slow undressing of the anxiety of the human soul in uncertain bleak landscapes – and in this case, in Eastern Europe. Set in a damp and petrified city where ennui reeks from every corner, Damnation depicts a man’s scheme to get her torch-singer lover back by sending her husband off on a smuggling gig out of town – only for plans to backfire, sealing her sorry fate. Having just undergone a brand-new 4K restoration last year – a version seen in Hong Kong for the first time – Damnation offers a great counterpoint to Akerman’s From the East and The Captive - or the film about Russian poet Anna Akhmatova she never managed to get made.