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Review

Pálfi’s latest is a triptych of stories — as freakishly beautiful as they are brazenly unsettling — that depict three generations of a Hungarian family. In the first segment, a cruel lieutenant tortures a hare lipped private prone to living a bizarre fantasy life that includes visions of Hans Christian Anderson’s little match girl masturbating him as he shoots fire out of his penis. The middle of the film shifts focus to the lieutenant’s son, a champion eater and vomiter who falls in love with a woman who also shares his unique pastime. And finally, in the last third, the competitive eater’s son, a taxidermist, tends to his morbidly obese and domineering father while feeling trapped in his own hopeless situation. The appearance of an art dealer brings him to the realization that he might be able to preserve a moment of his depressing life for art’s sake. Welcome to the alternate universe of György Pálfi, where characters don’t shy away from displaying full-frontal nudity and participate in acts of bestiality, pig-slaughter and self-mutilation. Yet nestled underneath the shocking and improbable scenarios, Pálfi’s startlingly original and masterfully realized vision resonates with the human emotions of people struggling to make the best of their lives, regardless of what destiny has in store for them. (Hungarian with English subtitles)

 -- Lewis Tice