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Hungarian director György Pálfi returns with Hen, a bold new feature set to screen at the 2025 San Sebastian International Film Festival in the experimental Zabaltegi Tabakalera section. Following its world premiere at TIFF earlier this year, this unusual and poetic tale stands out for its choice of a hen—not a person—as its protagonist.
A hen, a man, and the end of the world as we know it
In line with Pálfi’s fascination for animals and their symbolic weight, Hen follows its avian heroine as she escapes a factory farm and finds sanctuary in the yard of a decaying restaurant. There, she experiences both tenderness and brutality: falling in love, navigating a fragile social order among other animals, and defending her eggs from a menacing restaurant owner. A simple premise on the surface, but like many of Pálfi’s earlier films, it opens the door to something more complex.
The director sees Hen as two parallel stories: one belonging to the hen, the other to a man whose presence lingers in the same space. “They have different motivations, but their stories are inseparable,” he explained. “I wanted to explore what happens when the human story isn’t the main thread.”
It’s a bold storytelling experiment, and one that speaks volumes about our place in the ecosystem. The film becomes a reflection on agency, exploitation, and survival, without ever losing its poetic rhythm. To read Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton face off in 2026’s Apex trailer
Pálfi’s signature touch: surrealism meets cinema of the body
For those who’ve followed Pálfi’s career—starting with the silent and mesmerizing Hukkle, through the grotesque excess of Taxidermia or the brilliant montage of Final Cut – Ladies and Gentlemen—Hen fits right in. His films often walk the line between discomfort and wonder, and this new one seems to be no exception.
Hen’s use of real animals (no CGI or artificial effects) is a deliberate choice. Pálfi refers to it as “an organic chicken movie,” a phrase that might sound almost tongue-in-cheek, but feels completely serious within his creative universe. In a cinema landscape increasingly dominated by digitally created animals and AI characters, there’s something deeply moving about watching a film that insists on physical presence.
From a pure filmmaking perspective, it raises some questions: How do you direct a chicken? What kind of intimacy can be created between camera and creature? We don’t yet have all the answers, but knowing Pálfi, he likely found his own strange and honest way.
Production details and international reach
Hen is a collaboration between Pallas Film and View Master Films, two production companies familiar with arthouse projects that sit slightly off to one side of mainstream narratives. The international sales are being handled by Lucky Number, suggesting that beyond the festival circuit, there’s hope for a wider release in select territories.
Highlights about the film’s background: To read Ranking Shyamalan’s Hits: Which Film Defines His Legacy?
- Hen had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2025
- Screens in the Zabaltegi Tabakalera section in San Sebastian, known for boundary-pushing cinema
- Produced using live chickens and real locations
- International sales managed by Lucky Number
Even in a festival as crowded as San Sebastian’s 2025 edition—with big names like Edward Berger’s Ballad of a Small Player or Angelina Jolie in Alice Winocour’s Couture—Hen promises something different. A quiet force, maybe. Or at least a cinematic outlier that stirs just enough to linger.
San Sebastian 2025: A rich festival lineup
The 2025 San Sebastian International Film Festival, running from September 19 to 27, is shaping up to be an eclectic edition. Alongside Hen, films such as James Vanderbilt’s courtroom drama Nuremburg and Winocour’s fashion-world drama will debut.
Jennifer Lawrence is set to receive the Donostia Award this year, the festival’s highest honor. In that same context, showcasing a film like Hen reaffirms San Sebastian’s commitment to not just showcasing stars but also persistent, uncompromising auteurs like Pálfi.
What I’m most curious about, personally, is how audiences will react. A chicken, love, death, metaphors—not your average night at the movies. But sometimes, that’s exactly what we need. A story that sets us aside and asks: what if we’re not at the center anymore? What if we never were?
