Directed by Béla Tarr | 439 mins | 1994
A cinephile rite of passage, Tarr’s magnum opus immerses us in the world of about a dozen characters in a shuttered factory town who are visited by a messianic figure but are also distracted by their own eyebrow-raising personal missions. Creating a rich texture of present time like no other film, and orchestrating sinuous sequences, Tarr forged a new kind of realism, suffused with absurdity, melancholy, and fighting chances. (Permission note: This film is typically screened with two breaks.)