In 2025 cinema embraced the POV of our winged friends. We have Macedonian filmmaker Tamara Kotevska’s Tale of Silyan that takes the human and bird rapport to higher heights and a bit lower to the surface we find a film working with universal themes and common film genres in Hen. Exploring profound themes of humanity, morality, and existence, our avian protagonist is set in an animal-focused “coming of age” tale that also critiques the decaying human world. With a fun mise-en-scène and agile cinematography this is cinema that can also be thought provoking.
I had the chance to speak to creative and real-life partner tandem of filmmaker György Pálfi and screenwriter Zsófia Ruttkay at the Toronto International Film Festival where Hen was selected as part of the Platform section (it landed an Honourable Mention). In my sit-down with the duo we asked about how they had to work outside their own film system to make and finance the film and we discussed the challenges of working with a different species.
