Like 'Au Hasard Balthasar' for the humblest of barnyard animals, Hungarian director György Pálfi's film is a remarkable technical and logistical feat, but so emotionally involving you almost forget to notice.
By Guy Lodge
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Film Critic
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Courtesy of TIFF Why did the chicken cross the road? In “Hen,” the answer is, as ever, to get to the other side. But the stakes are a little higher and more urgent than that in György Pálfi unassuming marvel of a creature feature: When its gallinaceous protagonist is forced across a busy highway, it’s because a hungry fox is very much on her tailfeathers. That hunter and prey in this scenario are both played by real live animals is a large part what makes “Hen” riveting: Made without CGI, with a predominantly non-human ensemble that includes eight fowl playing the lead role alone, it’s a sustained cinematic feat of fauna-wrangling unlike any other. But it’s not the miraculous novelty of the production that crosses your mind as you’re watching: In the moment, your heart pounds for that poor, dumb but surprisingly resourceful chicken, and you lock completely into her simultaneously small and vast survival saga.
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