reported receiving word of his producer’s death two days before shooting was scheduled to begin in Bastia, Corsica. Balsan’s death led to significant financial difficulties for the production. The film had been established as a co-production with French, German and Hungarian financing. Tarr’s Budapest-based production company T. T. Filmmhely were to provide the Hungarian funding for the project, while Balsan had secured the French and German financing for the film by warranting a loan from the French bank Coficin. Upon learning of his death, the bank withdrew its support for the production, which was then postponed.
After securing additional financing from Eurimages and ARTE, Tarr used these and the Hungarian funds to undertake nine days of shooting on sets he had built at a cost of 2 million. The French funding was cross-financed for the shoot by T. T. Filmmhely. As