An amateur entomologist leaves Tokyo to study an unclassified species of beetle found in a vast desert. When he misses his bus back to the city, he is persuaded of spending the night with a young widow in her hut by a sand dune, who is forced to constantly clear the sands that threaten to engulf it.

Hiroshi Teshigahara’s staggering 1960s classic, a winner of the Cannes Special Jury Prize and nominated for two Oscars, strikingly fuses existential thriller and erotic drama. With spellbinding, surreal imagery and a sensual, atmospheric quality, this is film at its most philosophical and cinematic.