TIFF 2025: “Hen” Serves as Part Absurdist Comedy and Part Slow-Burn Tragedy

By: Myles Herod –
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György Pálfi’s “Hen” begins not with grandeur, but a close-up of an egg’s messy arrival into the world. From this visceral birth, the film charts the journey of a lone chicken who dodges the slaughterhouse and stumbles into a world no less cruel than the one she escaped.

This bird, dark-feathered and defiant, becomes an accidental wanderer. Her path winds from factory to freeway, from roadside diner to seaside ruin, where she’s adopted by an aging restaurateur and entangled in the lives of his morally bankrupt family. Smuggling and decay swirl around her as she lays eggs and seeks meaning in a world that barely notices her.

Told almost entirely from the bird’s perspective: low angles, ambient sound, and a camera that clings to her movements, “Hen” is a cinematic experiment that dares to depict an animal without speech or sentiment. It’s a gamble that mostly pays off, thanks to Pálfi’s tactile direction and composer Szőke Szabolcs’ evocative score.

The film is part absurdist comedy and part slow-burn tragedy. It pokes at themes of motherhood and moral erosion, all while our feathered lead pecks through the wreckage of human behavior. The middle act drags, and the novelty wears thin, but the final stretch lands with quiet devastation.

“Hen” doesn’t demand sympathy, it asks for reflection. In a world where cruelty is casual and compassion is rare, this chicken’s odyssey becomes a mirror. And in that mirror we see not just a bird but ourselves scrambling, surviving, and sometimes barely escaping.