Il deserto dei Tartari (1976)

Director:

Valerio Zurlini

Writers:

Dino Buzzati (novel) and
André G. Brunelin (story) ...

Release Date:

29 October 1976 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

As his first assignment, lieutenant Drogo is sent to an isolated fortress on the borders of a desert and of a range of high mountains...

Plot Keywords:

Desert | Fortress | Lieutenant | Military | Shot To Death

Awards:

4 wins

Cast

Vittorio Gassman	...	Filimore
Giuliano Gemma	...	Mattis
Helmut Griem	...	Lieutenant Simeon
Philippe Noiret	...	General
Jacques Perrin	...	Drogo
Francisco Rabal	...	Tronk
Fernando Rey	...	Nathanson
Laurent Terzieff	...	Amerling
Jean-Louis Trintignant	...	Le médecin-major Rovin
Max von Sydow	...	Hortiz
Shaban Golchin Honaz	...	Soldat Lazare
Giuseppe Pambieri	...	Lieutenant Rathenau
Bryan Rostron
Kamran Nozad	...	Capitaine Sern
Manfred Freyberger	...	Caporal Montagne

Also Known As:

Die Tartarenwüste (West Germany)
Le désert des Tartares (France)
Le desert des Tartars
The Desert of the Tartars

Runtime:

140 min | France:138 min

Country:

Italy | France | West Germany

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f) | Italy:T | Netherlands:9 (2009) (DVD) | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Arg-e Bam, Iran

Company:

Cinema Due

Quotes:

Drogo: I was sent here by mistake.
Le médecin-major Rovin: Here or elsewhere, we're all somewhere by mistake.

Imaginary enemies

Very little happens in Valerio Zurlini's The Desert of the Tartars two-and-a-half hours, which is exactly the point, as Jacques Perrin's initially ambitious young officer is posted to a magnificent desert fort overlooking the spectacular ruins of an ancient city on a non-existent border where soldiers wait endlessly for a possibly imagined enemy to give a sense of focus and purpose to their lives. Yet the Tartars remain the stuff of rumours and legends, the visually striking fort (Arge-E-Bam in Iran) a quietly malignant place, its very walls infested with an unidentifiable disease that slowly destroys its inhabitants. Yes, we're in allegory territory here, with the human condition distilled down to waiting and planning for a moment that may never happen, with all the malaise that entails, and it's a film you're either going to be drawn into or find two-and-a-half hours of pure tedium. One of the few films to show how cold and inhospitable the desert can be, there are vague similarities to the considerably less successful Fort Saganne in the way it undermines the expectations of a Beau Geste-like adventure in favour of the malaise and unrealised expectation that was really the stuff of a career-killing desert posting. With an impressively varied international cast – Max Von Sydow, Phillipe Noiret, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Helmut Griem and Fernando Rey among them – and boasting fine cinematography by Luciano Tovoli, it's not for all tastes but it certainly casts a spell on those it ensnares.