Fate (1994) review

Dark night of the soul vibes, somewhere in Europe: Russian accordionist Valery (Valerij Fedorenko) is asked by a man to go back to his apartment with him to play tangos for money and then is challenged to drink an unhealthy amount of vodka (which he does), he has a breakdown in a fountain, he challenges someone to a game of pool (and wins) and then visits his lover Ljuba (Sanja Spengler), who's entertaining another fellow (that he shoots).  Kelemen, who's worked as a cinematographer (for Béla Tarr and others), gives it a washed-out appearance - it was shot on Hi-8 and then transferred to 16mm using a television - and although it runs a very trim eighty minutes and feels a bit incomplete/unfinished, it manages to evoke a strong feeling of despair and hopelessness in that span of time.  Susan Sontag famously name-checked this in her controversial 1996 essay "The Decay of Cinema" and I struggled for two decades to locate a copy, so you can imagine how astonished I was to find it with English subtitles.  The "style-is-content" crowd - you know who you are - should make it a priority to see it and give it the cult status it deserves.