Hen
György Pálfi's Hen follows a plucky barnyard chicken as she tries to survive and thrive in this cruel, unnatural world
Like 2023’s EO (about a donkey) or 2021's Gunda (about a pig), Hen – directed by György Pálfi – follows a humble barnyard animal’s journey through a life marked from earliest existence by humanity’s machinery and machinations. These whims and structures feel exceptionally cruel when up against an existence as small as a chicken's, and the beautiful jet-black bird – marked as a stranger among her white counterparts at the factory farm – sees seemingly random violences and mercies with little agency over her fate. But little agency doesn't mean no agency; crucially, this charming protagonist wants to survive and raise her own brood, following her call of nature in an unnatural world.
While Hen has moments of levity, there are heartstopping chases with a fox, human-wrought destruction of homes (for reasons beyond the chicken’s comprehension, but wryly clear to viewers), and the ever-present peril of crossing the road. Pálfi is not interested in misery porn or easy moralising, showing instead the sometimes contradictory, sometimes tragic, and often very funny way humans and animals follow their easiest urges. If lifeforms lower down the food chain pay the price, that is life. But nihilism is equally absent; the black hen has just as much a right to health and happiness, and her petty successes give Hen its verve. With excellent sound design, inventive chicken-eye-level camera angles, and an entirely real cast of animals (there's no CGI or AI, and none were harmed in making), Hen is a mini marvel.
Released 22 May by CONIC; certificate 15
conic.film/films/hen