Aimless young musician András drifts through a series of jobs—and women—in a Budapest that offers little possibility of la vie bohème. In a bar, he meets Kata and the two soon marry, despite their limited means and the fact that András already has a child. They do not live happily ever after.

Misspent talent sloshes through the Hungarian streets in Béla Tarr’s ferocious second feature, about a vagabond virtuoso with nowhere to go but the gutter. Condemning a nation for allowing its people to go to waste, this newly restored work by the splenetic master is bitter, yes—but breathtaking.