The Prefab People

The Prefab People (Hungarian: Panelkapcsolat) is a 1982 Hungarian black-and-white drama film directed by Béla Tarr. The film earned special mention in the 1982 Locarno International Film Festival. The film has several run times (72 min., 84 min., or 102 min. depending on the version), and is shot in 35 mm.^[1]

The Prefab People
DVD cover
Directed by	Béla Tarr
Screenplay by	Béla Tarr
Starring	Judit Pogány Róbert Koltai
Cinematography	Barna Mihók Ferenc Pap
Edited by	Ágnes Hranitzky
Release date	December 9, 1982 (1982-12-09) (Hungary)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	Hungary
Language	Hungarian

Plot

A couple in a failing marriage recall what led up to their biggest dispute.

Reception

The Prefab People received generally positive reviews from critics, and has been ranked with Tarr's best early works. Rotten Tomatoes reports a 100% approval rating from critics, based on six reviews, and an average rating of 7.5/10.^[2] Writing for Village Voice, Michael Atkinson called the film an "unrelenting, smell-the-sour-breath portrait of a blue-collar marriage dissolving under pressure from Communist-era poverty, masculine inadequacy, and restless depression."^[3]

Jonathan Rosenbaum of Chicago Reader argued it was "the best of his early forays into Cassavetes-style social realism."^[4] In 2003, web-based film critic Jeremy Heilman called The Prefab People the best of [Tarr's] early works because it achieves such a degree of intimacy that its lack of ostentatious filmmaking never impedes its ability to observe its characters."^[5]