Eight birds play the lead in Hen \u2013 one for running scenes, one for pecking, one for staying still. And there\u2019s even a cockerel love interest. Director Gy\u00f6rgy P\u00e1lfi explains why it\u2019s his most normal movie yet<\/p>\n
If oppressive regimes inadvertently give rise to striking artistic works of resistance, then Hen might just be a parting gift from Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s far-right regime. This compelling, original film, told from the perspective of a hen, was only made because Hungarian film-maker Gy\u00f6rgy P\u00e1lfi could no longer create anything in his home country. Orb\u00e1n\u2019s 16 years of cronyism banished any chance of funding a film in Budapest, so P\u00e1lfi \u2013 who has directed eight wildly original films, from his near-wordless 2002 debut Hukkle to 2006\u2019s visually striking<\/a> and grotesque Taxidermia \u2013 was driven into exile. Searching for a universal story he could tell even when filming in a culture or country he didn\u2019t fully understand, he and co-writer and partner Zs\u00f3fia Ruttkay settled on a biopic of a factory-farmed chicken.<\/p>\n The hen escapes her gruesome, industrial birthplace in Greece and, through her naturally comic beady eyes, we witness the unfolding of a modern-day Greek tragedy, whereby a down-at-heel restaurateur is drawn into the brutal world of people-smuggling.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/9fb75e63a497971aabbf31635e33c70aed3226e0\/534_0_2144_1716\/master\/2144.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=68d72397b151cd808580818d479c2b75\" "\\"\u2018Somehow")
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