Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Béla Tarr (born July 21, 1955) is a Hungarian film director. Tarr was born in Pécs, but grew up in Budapest in a working class family. His mother took him to a casting by the Hungarian national television (MTV) at the age of 10 and he finally won the role of the protagonist's son in a TV-drama adaptation of Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Apart from a smaller role in Miklós Jancsó's film Szörnyek évadja (Season of Monsters, 1986), Tarr never tried acting again. He has said that originally he wanted to be a philosopher, and he considered film making as something of a hobby. However, after making his 8mm short films, the Hungarian government would not allow Tarr to attend university. So he chose to pursue film production instead.