Werckmeister Harmonies (2000): cast, story & where to watch

Released in 2000, Werckmeister Harmonies is a drama film directed by Béla Tarr, running about 139 minutes.

What it’s about. This story takes place in a small town on the Hungarian Plain. In a provincial town, which is surrounded with nothing else but frost. It is bitterly cold weather — without snow. Even in this bewildered cold hundreds of people are standing around the circus tent, which is put up in the main square, to see — as the outcome of their wait — the chief attraction, the stuffed carcass of a real whale. The people are coming from everywhere. From the neighboring settlings, even from quite far away parts of the country. They are following this clumsy monster as a dumb, faceless, rag-wearing crowd. This strange state of affairs — the appearance of the foreigners, the extreme frost — disturbs the order of the small town. Ambitious personages of the story feel they can take advantage of this situation. The tension growing to the unbearable is brought to explosion by the figure of the Prince, who is pretending facelessness. Even his mere appearance is enough to break loose destructive emotions...

Who’s in it. Werckmeister Harmonies stars Lars Rudolph as János Valuska, Peter Fitz as György Eszter, Hanna Schygulla as Tünde Eszter and Alfréd Járai as Lajos Harrer, among others.

How it landed. With an audience score of 7.9/10, Werckmeister Harmonies has been warmly received by audiences. It went on to earn $25.5K at the box office.

Where to watch. In US you can stream it on Criterion Channel and Klassiki and rent or buy it from Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies and YouTube. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch Werckmeister Harmonies page.

If you liked it. Fans of Werckmeister Harmonies tend to enjoy The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, Schindler's List and The Godfather Part II.