Second feature from the Estonian director of the highly acclaimed Sugisball charts the catastrophic breakdown of the life of a dull, provincial middle-manager. Comparison with Tarkovsky and others may be premature but this is no sophomore effort and is worth taking seriously as it's full of impressive, meticulous scenes, ranging from droll to oddball to deeply disturbing, with good use of ambient music and innovative camera-work (surprisingly, still possible).The narrative, in five parts, is sparse and evidently a large dose of obscurantism was added during the editing. At first it looks like a bleak comedy, then it seems to morph into a religious allegory (there's a fine scene where a priest walks up the wall) before developing into a quite nasty Lynchian nightmare involving cannibalism.One synopsis I read bears scant relation to what I saw - the diabolic choice given to Tony by the 'Meister' whether to rebel or conform (presumably a simple metaphor of life under the Soviets) was absent - which may be just as well, because the obscurity of the narrative provides much of the atmosphere.

I have to agree with all of the previous Positive reviews (only 6 right now...) with the references to Roy Anderson, Kubrick, Buñuel and Tarkofsky - I also thought superficially of Eraserhead by David Lynch. Shot in black and white, except for his Bentley and modern house, this film looks like it could have been made in the 1960s. A masterful effort, disturbing but with "painterly" composition and good acting. Some of the references, religious and otherwise (like a black dog he accidentally hits with his car, then reappears alive, only to be killed by his wife), escape me, but I would definitely see this a second time. I'm amazed a film like this can be so ignored and unknown.

I have no clue how some other people that left a comment could compare it to Antonioni or Bunuel's dreamlike masterpieces.The critique to the wild capitalism rampant in the former USSR, although now relevant more than ever, sounds trite.The difficulties of communicating in a couple and keeping a relationship alive are analyzed without any depth or insight.I understand that corruption in modern Russia and in the Baltic region is a serious problem, but the way the lack of justice is portrayed in the movie, with the attempt of being an upstanding citizen that backfires and leads to trouble, is very cheap.But I must say that I liked two things:the devastated Church scene was quite beautiful, both visually and in terms of its message (the age of religion is gone, and only empty spaces are left, both because people left distracted by their search for material success and because of the "looting" that has taken place by the media, the political and cultural leaders.)when the main character runs to the young girl in a jogging outfit, with the tags still on (meaning that although he tried to put "a new suit" on, his change was just on the outside, it was superficial.) Quite possibly what we are living (or what the former USSR is experiencing) is not the Golden age. But then, Are we really sure we are no longer capable of doing good? Are we really sure that we are so busy with ourselves that we don't even recognize that we are eating alive our loved ones (the new lover) and killing what they the cherish most (the dog)?To conclude: this is a very pretentious movie, that was designed to look like art and to be provocative, without a genuine and honest message. In my opinion, the emperor is naked, and the director failed miserably.

New Õunpuu's film is a real jewel in contemporary cinema. It confirms his bright talent and distinctive sense for storytelling. "Temptation of St. Tony" is full of epic scenes which (one day) might get praised as some of the highest cinema peaks of our time. Leading you trough the dark corridors of mankind director awards the viewer after each corner with such visual brilliancy that you can't get irrelevant. Cinematic language of "Temptation of St. Tony" is closer to classics like Antonioni, Bunuel or Tarkovsky than to contemporary film making styles. After "Sügisbal" and "St. Tony" it's sure that we have a new, complete author on cinematic stage. Let's celebrate.