“片长七小时却每一分钟皆雷霆万钧，引人入胜。但愿在我有生之年，年年都重看一遍。”——苏珊‧桑塔格 开场八分钟的推轨镜头，已道出此片的史诗气魄。牛群从牛棚涌出，摄影机隔 着 一列破旧的农居追踪，有趣的是牠们一路盲目前冲，一路还试图交配。塔可夫斯基式的画面，却是教人屏息的典型塔尔风格，妙笔一挥预告一个集体农场如何走向灭亡。故事始于传闻已死的骗子重临村子，他要骗走农场收入 ，却给村民认定是大救星。接 着 上演一个悲剧，然后是一个讽刺故事。全片十二章的结构正如 Krashnahorkai 的原着，启发自六步踏前、六步退后的探戈舞，不同视角有时重複同一剧情。农场最终的命运暗喻九十年代初共产主义的破产，同时也是人类共同命运的观照。全片最精采两段，一是担当叙事者的医生偷偷记录村民活动，他蹒跚买醉的跟镜，成为最感人的观影存在体验。另一段女孩虐猫，亦写下影史上有数的伤感时刻。没有故弄玄虚，一种交代故事的坦率，让演员在真实时间存在，让观众随他们的情态同步呼吸，箇中有导演对电影最大的深情与敬意。七个半小时的每个镜头，个个都是不朽──没有想当然的静止，而是自有一种有机的内在节奏。像小津和德莱叶，塔尔深谙长镜头的真谛。这是必须去经历的，一生难逢的观影经验。

In the small village of Rátót, every male is called Béla. When a woman gives birth to her child, she names him Józsi...

Dery is a grande dame actress of the Sarah Bernhardt school of big-gesture theater. Her beauty and popularity is fading, and a new school of acting which involves the use of one's own emotions (a-la Eleanora Duse) is emerging in the person of her younger Viennese rival. She thinks of retiring from the stage, and reunites briefly with her estranged husband in a newly-built manor in the country. Finding that life there is boring, she returns to town, the theater, and her old friends.

The story of a young servant girl who comes to work on the construction site of a large-scale industrial settlement. She decides to embark on an independent life, runs away from her foster parents, gets on a train and sets out to earn money. Modest and shy, she joins the factory's group of "Stakhanovites" and soon makes new comrades. Her coworkers accept her into their team.

The film is a story of a double journey. The main character of the first journey is the author himself, who, while sitting in his customary café, suddenly realises that he has hallucinations. The psychologist reassures him that all this is merely repression. The symptoms, however, appear again. Soon it turns out that the author has a brain tumour. Professor Pötzl in Vienna suggests operation right away. The intervention, through which he is awake, is carried out in a Stockholm clinic.