Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2021: #81. György Pálfi’s Hen

Hen

After premiering two new titles in 2018, for what will technically be his 8th feature, Hungary’s György Pálfi moves into the pen with the intriguing Hen, a Hungarian-Mexican co-production presented as a project in the San Sebastian Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum. Palfi’s crew has yet to be announced. Pálfi’s 2002 debut Hukkle went to TIFF and San Sebastian (where he won a Special Mention as Best New Director) and then his 2006’s Taxidermia premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes. He’s competed twice in Karlovy Vary, first with I Am Not Your Friend (co-directed by Zsofia Ruttkay and Attila Rethly) then in 2014 with Free Fall, which won Best Director and the Special Prize of the Jury.

Gist: Told from the perspective of a free-range hen who is increasingly frustrated by a farmer who keeps taking her eggs when she longs to hatch her children, she finds a way to hide them. Through her eyes we come to understand the tragic life of her perpetrator.

Release Date/Prediction: While Palfi is still seeking funding and international partners, Hen could likely be a release in the latter half of 2021, though it might be a project which would find itself in either the Karlovy Vary or Locarno competitions.