Hukkle [LAST SCREENING]

New 4K Restoration

An old man hiccups. He shuffles slowly about his morning ritual and then takes his place on a bench outside his cottage, beside the road, still hiccuping. A goose goes about its business. Flies buzz. A cat earns its living. A runaway cart causes a stir in the village. The old man hiccups. A lovingly photographed natural history, these opening shots announce György Pálfi’s Hukkle as a film that will proceed in its own way to its own destination, without regard to convention. The film is told almost entirely without dialogue, but is alive to sound; we spend observant, introspective hours in a Hungarian hamlet where nothing much seems to happen — oh, except that there’s a suspicious death…

A mesmerizing pastoral symphony. Finely attuned to the sensual possibilities, both in nature and in cinema.