Neighbouring Cinema Festival Film Programme at Jam Factory Art Center 🎬

This August and early September, join us for a series of free partner screenings presented as part of the international Neighbouring Cinema Festival, in partnership with Jam Factory Art Center.

The Neighbouring Cinema Festival showcases contemporary cinema from Central and Eastern Europe, introduces audiences to emerging directorial voices, and creates a space for dialogue between cultures through film.

The third event in the programme is HEN.

Registration

About the film

The protagonist of Perla is a black hen born on a poultry farm in Greece. Among countless chicks, she is the only one to escape the farm, embarking on a journey through a dangerous and unfamiliar world. Eventually, she finds refuge in an abandoned rural restaurant, where she unexpectedly becomes a witness to a dark human drama involving human trafficking and the smuggling of migrants. Her struggle for survival gradually becomes a mirror reflecting the lives of the people around her.

Why watch it?

HEN is an eccentric comic thriller that invites audiences to see the world through the eyes of its feathered heroine. It offers a perfect introduction to the singular style of György Pálfi, one of Hungary’s most uncompromising contemporary filmmakers, whose work blends grotesque imagery, dark humour, and surrealism. Interestingly, this film is often described as the director’s “most conventional” work.

The lead role is performed by eight real hens—without animatronics or CGI. The camera consistently adopts their perspective, transforming the experience of being a chicken into a rich emotional journey.

Pálfi’s films, including Hukkle and Taxidermia, have represented Hungary in the race for the Academy Awards. After Viktor Orbán’s government took direct control of Hungary’s film funding in 2019, the director stated that he could no longer make films in his homeland. Perla was therefore created in exile.

Registration

 Details

Date: 26 August | 6:30 PM
Running time: 96 min
Language: Hungarian with extended Ukrainian subtitles and English subtitles
Recommended age: 16+

Jam Factory Art Center
124 Bohdana Khmelnytskoho St., Lviv
Auditorium

Content warning: Animal cruelty, explicit birth scenes, human trafficking, murder.

Registration policy

Admission to all Neighbouring Cinema Festival screenings is free with prior registration.

To give as many people as possible the opportunity to attend, we kindly ask you to follow a few simple guidelines:

• Please register only for screenings you are certain you will attend.
• If your plans change, cancel your reservation so that someone else can take your place.
• If you fail to attend twice without cancelling your reservation in advance, all of your future bookings will be automatically cancelled.

Learn more about Jam Factory Art Center at jamfactory.ua.