It’s Hard To Be a Chicken in a Man’s World.

The latest film from visionary Hungarian filmmaker György Pálfi whose previous films include Hukkle (2002), Taxidermia (2006) and His Master’s Voice (2018), Hen follows the life of an ostracised chicken who escapes from the poultry farm and ventures into unfamiliar territory. 

We witness the nameless hen’s perilous journey into the world we know while she fights to survive, combating the elements and her own personal quest for motherhood. The chicken struggles to take control of her own destiny, with her fate constantly determined by the kindness, cruelty and ignorance of the various humans she encounters. 

The bird acts as a passive observer to the chaotic environment around her. Pálfi evokes familiar imagery of the world we live in today shown through the unjudgmental view of a solitary chicken. In most films, a chicken would typically be restricted to being an inconsequential prop placed in the background, but here, Pálfi places the chicken front and centre. Everything we see is from this individual poultry’s perspective. There is a larger world occurring around the film, but the plights of the humans present feel trivial in comparison to the struggles of our titular hen. 

For those familiar with György Pálfi’s previous work, Hen is just as visually striking and darkly funny while also being one of his more light-hearted and accessible films. That is not to say Hen doesn’t also feature the same attitude as expected with abrupt shifts in tone from comedy to tragedy. The film demonstrates the violence and horrific acts that man can inflict and juxtaposes this with the blank expression of a chicken to terrific humorous effect. There is no internal monologue or Disneyfication, the chicken does not talk, sing or dance. She simply exists and acts as you would expect a chicken to. This is the films greatest strength, by allowing the audience to infer the thoughts and feelings of the chicken without expressively forcing them upon us. Hen is an ambitious project. Not just to undertake but also to trust that a film centred solely around a silent chicken could successfully hold an audience’s attention for 90 minutes. Thankfully, through unbridled humour, precise direction and scene stealing performances by eight different chickens portraying our feathered lead we have an unique and entertaining tale sure to be considered a cluckin’ good time. 

Standing firm with the anthropomorphic pantheon alongside films such as EO, Flow and Au Hasard Balthazar. Hen is a bold, quirky, and creative piece made to be experienced with an audience. 

Why did the chicken cross the road? To see Hen at the Lighthouse Cinema on the 25^th February.