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The Desert of the Tartars

Lieutenant Drogo (Jacques Perrin, Corruption) is a young soldier eager to join the fight. After enlisting, he is sent to a border fortress where the troops prepare for battle. As he acclimatises to his new surroundings, he discovers that there is little action and instead of fighting, he becomes embroiled in a battle of endless bureaucracy. The troops strain for sanity as they await an onslaught that may never arrive. The final film by celebrated auteur Valerio Zurlini ranks among his finest, an existential parable about the futility of war, with echoes of Kafka and Orwell.  A haunting adaptation of the influential novel by Dino Buzzati, The Desert of the Tartars stars an incredible cast of the era's finest European actors. 

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:

• 4K restoration of the film from the original negative by Luce-Cinecittà 
  
• Deserts of Vast Eternity - a documentary on Zurlini’s career and influences leading up to the making of The Desert of the Tartars featuring Navid Ghazanfari, Lawrence Venuti, Daniel Riccuito, Willard Bohn, Stephen Volk, Pasquale Iannone and Federica Fioroni (David Cairns, 2026, 68 mins)
  
• Archival interview with cinematographer Luciano Tovoli (2005, 36 mins)
  
• Archival interview with producer Mario Gallo (2005, 18 mins)
  
• Trailer
  
• Gallery of promotional materials
  
• Newly improved English subtitle translation
  
• Reversible sleeve featuring artwork based on original promotional materials 
  
• Booklet featuring new writing by Michael Brooke and an archival interview with Zurlini
  
• Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Add two or more of our February releases (Shinobi vol 3, The Desert of the Tartars, Le Pont du Nord & Let's Scare Jessica to Death) to cart to receive 10% off. Discount automatically applied at cart. Ends December 9th.

The Desert of the Tartars is also available in the US/Canada at www.radiancefilms.us

Year: 1976
Country: Italy
Cert: TBC
Format: Blu-ray
Region: AB
RAD222BDLE
EAN: 5060974684410
Release date: 22/02/27

“Zurlini creates an oblique portrait, enhanced by Ennio Morricone’s score, of a nowhere-land where time subjugates all, ultimately vanquishing both the trappings of duty and humanity itself” - Cinematheque Ontario

“Zurlini erects an arid, hyper-real landscape to support a surrealistic vision, as if Bunuel had directed La Grande Illusion” - Pacific Film Archive

“The film’s isolated setting - vast barren stretches of sand, intruded upon by the brooding immutability of the fortress - is an apt register of its characters’ alienation, evoking a ‘desertscape of the mind’”  - Take One