Keswick Film Club - Reviews - Hen

Over 90 people were drawn to last Sunday's film "Hen". The seventh film by Hungarian director Gyorgy Palfi, it was unusual in that people were somewhat secondary stars to the hen of the title. The opening sequence followed the birth of a black chick in a battery farming factory and for several minutes there were no words as we watched her escape, grow up and defeat various dangers such as a fox chase, a predator and traffic.

By this time we were watching the world from hen height. Cleverly filmed with eight hens with different skills Palfi describes working with them and their handler as though they were human. Woven in with the hen’s adventures at a closed taverna we start to see corrupt dealings enfolding by members of the elderly owner’s family. Parallels between battery farming and people smuggling are understated but inferred. It is filmed in Greece where Palfi moved his family and raised money for the film. Now back in Hungary following the change of regime he has plans for more films with a cast of animals.