BEAU GESTE meets WAITING FOR GODOT in this haunting adaptation of renowned Italian writer Dino Buzzati 's controversial 1938 novel about life, honor, mystery, paranoia and death during wartime.For his first commission, infantry lieutenant Drogo (BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF's Jacques Perrin) is stationed at a remote desert garrison on the mist-shrouded border of the North Kingdom. Filling their days with endless drilling, the soldiers of Fortezza Bastiani spend the long nights wondering about an enemy no one has ever seen. As the days stretch into months, the strain of waiting for attack takes its toll on Drago's comrades: sadistic Major Mattis (Giuliano Gemma), sardonic Lieutenant Simeon (THE DAMNED's Helmut Griem), cynical medic Rovine (THE CONFORMIST's Jean-Louis Trintignant) and humiliated Captain Hortiz (THE EXORCIST's Max Von Sydow), who lives with the shame of having once sounded the alarm against an attack that vanished before anyone else could see.Rarely screened outside Europe since its 1976 premiere, Il Deserto dei Tartari (THE DESERT OF THE TARTARS) was the last film from Italian director Valerio Zurlini before his death in 1982 and also features legendary actors Vittorio Gassman (BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET), Philippe Noire (CINEMA PARADISO), Fernando Rey (THE FRENCH CONNECTION), and Francisco Rabal (VIRIDIANA), with a subdued, evocative score by Ennio Morricone.

Video providers : , and this video is stored with all copyright by