A dark comedy about a hen fleeing from a farm follows her journey to freedom through a sequence of comical, cruel, and absurd encounters with the world.
This film by György Pálfi (Taxidermia, 2006) is an experiment at the intersection of fiction and documentary making. The camera follows the bird everywhere, yet the plot is obviously constructed. Montage turns the hen’s behavior, her reactions to danger, her search for food, and her reproductive cycle into a story with chases, losses, and unexpected encounters.
The protagonist is played by eight Leghorn chickens: Eszti, Szandi, Feri, Enci, Eti, Enikő, Nóra, and Anett. Within the filmmaking system, the birds are actresses whose role is to reproduce expected behavior before the camera.
The film balances between documentation and creation of a character, reminding us that the protagonist is both an animal and an element of the film structure. Death, which the film does not hide from, is present on the screen both as a part of life and a spectacle.
The film premiered at Toronto International Film Festival, where it received the Jury’s Special Mention, in 2025.
The film will be screened in Greek, English, and Italian with Russian subtitles.
Hen
Director: György Pálf
Germany, Greece, Hungary, 2025. 96 min.
18+