The Desert of the Tartars
Lieutenant Giovanni Drogo is assigned to the old Bastiani border fortress where he expects an imminent attack by nomadic fearsome Tartars.
From the archive
The Desert of the Tartars is a 1976 Italian film directed by Valerio Zurlini, based on Dino Buzzati's novel "The Tartar Steppe." The story is set around 1900 and follows a young officer, Lieutenant Drogo, who is assigned to a remote fortress on the empire's frontier, where he and the garrison engage in meaningless military rituals while facing isolation and mental decline. As time passes without any enemy appearing, the soldiers' stress leads to erratic behavior, culminating in tragedy for Drogo and his comrades.
Why this is free to watch
The Desert of the Tartars (1976) is hosted by the Internet Archive as a public-domain or openly licensed work, which means its copyright has expired, lapsed, or was released by the rights holder. The uploader declared an explicit licence, linked in the source panel. Nitrate streams the file directly from the Archive and hosts no video itself.
- Director
- Valerio Zurlini
- Starring
- Jacques Perrin, Vittorio Gassman, Giuliano Gemma, Helmut Griem, Philippe Noiret, Francisco Rabal, Fernando Rey, Laurent Terzieff
Player shortcuts
- Space Play / pause
- ← → Skip 10s
- ↑ ↓ Volume
- M Mute
- F Fullscreen
- 0–9 Jump to %
















