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THIS IS THE STANDARD EDITION AND DOES NOT INCLUDE A SLIP COVER 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. The 4K digital restoration using the original image negative and the original digital sound master was carried out by the National Film Institute Hungary- Film Archive in 2023, in the frame of the "Long-term restoration programme of the Hungarian film heritage." Grading supervised by Gergely Pohárnok DP Sound remastering by Tamás Zányi sound engineer Hungarian submission to the 2002 Academy Awards * Village Secrets: Making Hukkle - Interview with filmmaker György Pálfi and co-writer Zsófia Ruttkay * A hal (short film) * Shaman vs Icarus (short film) * Theatrical Trailer * Booklet with an essay by Josh Hurtado * Complete Hukkle script * Slipcover art by Aleksander Walijewski
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Hukkle (2002)
78 min
Using almost no dialogue, the film follows a number of residents (both human and animal) of a small rural community in Hungary – an old man with hiccups, a shepherdess and her sheep, an old woman who may or may not be up to no good, some folk-singers at a wedding, etc. While most of the film is a series of vignettes, there is a sinister and often barely perceptible subplot involving murder.