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Maloin's story is ours - all of those who doubt or question our humdrum existence. Legendary Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr's moody and claustrophobic drama is a homage to film noir based on a Georges Simenon novel. The character of Maloin leads a basic, lonely existence working at a French port on the shore of an infinite sea. Yet, when he witnesses a murder, his monotonous routine takes a sudden detour. Filled in black and white and full of pure cinema magic, Tarr's flawless mise-en-scène evokes Maloin's indestructible longing for a life of freedom and happiness. Questioning morality, sin, punishment, innocence and his complicity in the crime, Maloin comes to question the very meaning of existence.

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D Béla Tarr P Humbert Balsan, Christoph Meyer-Wiel, Paul Saadoun, Gábor Téni, Joachim von Vietinghoff S Béla Tarr, László Krasznahorkai WS Fortissimo Films L English, French w/English subtitles TD 35mm/2007/132mins