# The Outsider (1981 film)
**The Outsider** (Hungarian: *Szabadgyalog*) is a 1981 Hungarian drama film directed and written by [Béla Tarr](https://www.edgepedia.org/bela-tarr), his second feature, about a talented but irresponsible violinist who drifts through jobs, bars, and relationships in communist-era Hungary.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083151/) • [2](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2179) It stars the non-professional actor and musician András Szabó in the lead role, with Jolán Fodor and Imre Donkó in the principal supporting parts.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083151/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *Szabadgyalog* (Hungarian)[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083151/) |
| Director and writer | Béla Tarr, his second feature after *Family Nest* (1979)[2](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2179) |
| Country and year | Hungary, 1981 (Hungarian premiere listed as 1980 by the Hungarian Film Institute)[2](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2179) • [3](https://nfi.hu/en/films/the-outsider.html) |
| Lead cast | András Szabó (András), Jolán Fodor (Kata), Imre Donkó (Csotesz)[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083151/) |
| Runtime | Reported as 122, 124, 128, and 135 minutes by different sources[4](https://luxboxfilms.com/the-outsider/) • [5](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-outsider-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmdiymze0) • [6](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/the-outsider/) • [3](https://nfi.hu/en/films/the-outsider.html) |
| Visual style | Shot in color, with handheld close-ups and amateur actors[2](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2179) |
| Festival history | Official selection, International Film Festival Rotterdam, 1982[4](https://luxboxfilms.com/the-outsider/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The protagonist András (András Szabó) is a gifted violinist who cannot hold his life together. He works as a nurse in the psychiatric ward of a town hospital, where he plays violin for the patients, and later at a cable factory; he loses jobs because of his drinking.[7](https://eiga.com/movie/96005/) • [4](https://luxboxfilms.com/the-outsider/) He was expelled from conservatory training, and the film presents him through lengthy conversations as a man who fits neither the artistic world nor the working world.[8](https://www.meniscuszine.com/articles/201202153014/bela-tarrs-the-outsider/)
His personal life follows the same pattern. He visits Anna, who has just given birth to his child, and tells her goodbye; he insists on paying child support for a child that is probably not his, which strains his relationship with Kata (Jolán Fodor), a woman he meets in a bar and marries.[7](https://eiga.com/movie/96005/) • [8](https://www.meniscuszine.com/articles/201202153014/bela-tarrs-the-outsider/) He also alienates his long-lost brother, Csotesz (Imre Donkó), while grinding away at a tedious factory job.[2](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2179) In one of the film's noted scenes, András, working as a disc jockey in a nightclub, screams at Kata over the volume of the dance music, a sonic wall that mirrors the wall he has built around himself.[8](https://www.meniscuszine.com/articles/201202153014/bela-tarrs-the-outsider/) The Hungarian Film Institute's synopsis ends the story with András living alone, finding amusement in his hobbies, until he is called up for military service.[3](https://nfi.hu/en/films/the-outsider.html)
## Production
Tarr was a student at the Academy of Theatre and Film in Budapest between 1977 and 1981, and the film was made while he was still enrolled there.[4](https://luxboxfilms.com/the-outsider/) • [7](https://eiga.com/movie/96005/) It was produced by Objektív Film Studio with Hungarian Television, on 35 mm, with cinematography by Ferenc Pap and Barna Mihók.[3](https://nfi.hu/en/films/the-outsider.html) The film also marks the start of Tarr's decades-long collaboration with editor Ágnes Hranitzky, who edited all of his films beginning with *The Outsider* and later received co-directing credit on his final three features.[9](https://apnews.com/article/7d25dccc232837db07a61d7d4e9b2a50)
Dating the film is not straightforward. The Hungarian Film Institute lists the Hungarian premiere as 1980,[3](https://nfi.hu/en/films/the-outsider.html) while most international reference sources, festival retrospectives, and distributors date it 1981,[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083151/) • [2](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2179) and its first documented festival appearance in the sources is [Rotterdam](https://www.edgepedia.org/rotterdam) in 1982.[4](https://luxboxfilms.com/the-outsider/) Runtime figures differ similarly: 122 minutes (Luxbox, IMDb), 124 minutes (Janus Films, BBFC), 128 minutes (Film at [Lincoln Center](https://www.edgepedia.org/lincoln-center)), and 135 minutes (Hungarian Film Institute).[4](https://luxboxfilms.com/the-outsider/) • [5](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-outsider-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmdiymze0) • [6](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/the-outsider/) • [3](https://nfi.hu/en/films/the-outsider.html)
## Style and place in Tarr's career
**Early realist period.** *The Outsider* belongs to the documentary-style phase of Tarr's career, before the long-take, black-and-white modernism of *[Damnation](https://www.edgepedia.org/damnation-1988-film)* (1988), *[Sátántangó](https://www.edgepedia.org/satantango)* (1994), and later work.[8](https://www.meniscuszine.com/articles/201202153014/bela-tarrs-the-outsider/) • [10](https://ahea.pitt.edu/ojs/ahea/article/view/259) It was shot in color, and Janus Films describes it as the first of only two films Tarr shot in color.[2](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2179) The film uses amateur actors and handheld close-ups that press into faces and fraying tempers, and its rough, self-consciously realist style has been compared to the films of [John Cassavetes](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-cassavetes).[2](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2179) • [8](https://www.meniscuszine.com/articles/201202153014/bela-tarrs-the-outsider/)
Thematically, the film widens the domestic dysfunction of Tarr's debut *Family Nest* into a portrait of Hungary's disenfranchised working class: Janus Films calls it evidence of Tarr's maturation as a chronicler of the ways social pressure deforms individual aspirations.[2](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2179) Hungarian film scholarship places it within the Budapest School movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s, alongside *Family Nest*, *Hotel Magnezit*, and *The Prefab People* (1982).[11](https://classiques-garnier.com/ecrans-2024-2-n-22-revoir-bela-tarr-genealogies-influences-resonances-from-budapest-school-to-berlin-ale.html?displaymode=full) A contemporary Hungarian critical bibliography records a cluster of reviews published around the film's domestic release in early 1982, in papers including *Magyar Nemzet*, *Népszabadság*, and *[Élet és Irodalom](https://www.edgepedia.org/elet-es-irodalom)*.[12](https://www.metropolis.org.hu/tarr-bela-valogatott-bibliografia)
## Reception and restoration
On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.4/10 from roughly 750 users.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083151/) Retrospective assessments have been more generous than the film's modest user scores suggest: MUBI's editorial note calls the newly restored work "bitter, yes, but breathtaking," condemning a nation for allowing its people to go to waste,[13](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/the-outsider) and one later critic, reviewing a Tarr retrospective, judged the film exceptional by the standards of 1980s cinema even while finding it messy by Tarr's own later standards.[14](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/outsider-the)
The film has circulated in restored editions. A 4K restoration was carried out by the Hungarian Film Institute's Filmarchive and Filmlab under Béla Tarr's supervision,[15](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/118215.html) and a 2K restoration was released theatrically by Janus Films, screening at the Walter Reade Theater as part of the "Farewell to Béla Tarr" series.[6](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/the-outsider/) In the United Kingdom the restored film was classified by the BBFC in June 2024 for physical media and streaming, with an advisory for brief strong sex.[5](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-outsider-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmdiymze0)
Tarr, born in Pécs, Hungary, in 1955, died at 70, as confirmed by the Hungarian Filmmakers' Association; *The Outsider* stands as the second entry in a feature filmography of nine films that ran from *Family Nest* (1979) to *The Turin Horse* (2011).[9](https://apnews.com/article/7d25dccc232837db07a61d7d4e9b2a50)
## References
1. [The Outsider (1981), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083151/)
2. [The Outsider, Janus Films](https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2179)
3. [The Outsider (Szabadgyalog), Hungarian Film Institute (NFI)](https://nfi.hu/en/films/the-outsider.html)
4. [The Outsider, Luxbox Films](https://luxboxfilms.com/the-outsider/)
5. [The Outsider, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-outsider-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmdiymze0)
6. [The Outsider, Film at Lincoln Center](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/the-outsider/)
7. [アウトサイダー（1981）作品情報, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/96005/)
8. [Review: Bela Tarr's "The Outsider", Meniscus Magazine (Christopher Bourne, 2012)](https://www.meniscuszine.com/articles/201202153014/bela-tarrs-the-outsider/)
9. [Hungarian director Béla Tarr dies at 70, Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/7d25dccc232837db07a61d7d4e9b2a50)
10. [Lilla Tőke, "The Outsider Within: Béla Tarr and Hungarian National Cinema", Hungarian Cultural Studies 9 (2016)](https://ahea.pitt.edu/ojs/ahea/article/view/259)
11. [From Budapest (School) to Berlin(ale), Écrans no. 22 (2024), Classiques Garnier](https://classiques-garnier.com/ecrans-2024-2-n-22-revoir-bela-tarr-genealogies-influences-resonances-from-budapest-school-to-berlin-ale.html?displaymode=full)
12. [Válogatott bibliográfia Tarr Béla műveiről, Metropolis](https://www.metropolis.org.hu/tarr-bela-valogatott-bibliografia)
13. [The Outsider, MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/the-outsider)
14. [The Outsider critic reviews, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/outsider-the)
15. [L'Outsider (Béla Tarr, 1981), La Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/118215.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1980s › Released 1980 to 1985*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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