(Kota, György, Pálfi, Germany/Greece/Hungary 2026, 96 min., DCP, Greek and Italian with English subtitles)
Somewhere between Babe: Pig in the City and Eo lies Hen, the newest film from György, Pálfi (Hukkle). The film follows a chicken from hatching into the wider and more dangerous world. Bred to be valuable because of her looks, the black-feathered Hen is discarded as food until she finds a way to escape, only to face the wilderness of human existence on her own. She makes her way to a roadside restaurant where she is a background observer of, and occasional participant in, dramas of domestic violence and human trafficking. Less a social critique viewed through the eyes of an animal and more of a reminder that life happens around and in spite of us, Hen is a remarkable piece of cinematography and editing that proves cinema as a machine for empathy.
DCP from Dekanalog.