The Temptation of Saint Tony is a black and white Estonian film, described in the film program as a black comedy. While I kind of agree that it has some good laughs, there a lot more at work here, and it’s misleading to sell the film short as simply that. The film’s protagonist is Anthony, a factory manager who, despite all the choices before him, is compelled to try and do the right thing, no matter what influences try to sway him otherwise. Being constantly questioned for his moral choices he becomes interested in the morality of the choices we make, and we are taken on a journey through the eyes of this middle aged businessman who can do no wrong.
We start the film at Tony’s fathers funereal, where a car promptly passes over the funeral procession crashing into a ravine; this sets off a chain of events for the rest of the film where basically poor Tony is plagued by bad circumstances beyond his control. While Tony is getting ready to leave his father’s funeral, he is confronted by the bloody survivor of the aforementioned accident who just has to sit in his brand new Bentley. Tony folds like a cheap lawn chair and concedes letting him sit on his new white leather seats. While driving home afterward, he notices a spot of dirt on his seat and while trying to clear it off  he hits a dog. While trying to dispose of the animal’s body he happens to come upon a cache of human hands dumped in a river and when he tries to report it to the police he is promptly suspected of the grizzly crime and “man-handled” by an officer.

Wife swapping, the homeless, murder and cannibalism… these are all things Tony is faced with throughout the film and must rise above to save his immortal soul. I entered the theater not expecting much, because this was one of the lesser known films in the series; but I left pleasantly surprised. While the film is very avant-garde and takes some time getting up to speed, once it starts going there is absolutely no stopping it with an ending that you won’t see coming a mile away.
The Temptation of Saint Tony was a great film and while not a standout hit like Robogeisha; it still exemplified the spirit of the Danger After Dark festival. Because it was really hard to pin point the genre, and I doubt I would have seen that film in a theater otherwise. I really enjoyed the film, in spite of it’s pacing issues and the quality of the print; which I swore had interlacing issues which at times made it hard to read the subtitles. But I feel comfortable giving The Temptation of Saint Tony a 3.8 out of five stars for pacing and presentation issues.