A cat eats chicken heads while Hungary eats itself alive.
It is a tragedy, set among low-lifes on the outskirts of Budapest. Dramatic Exchange describes it as "Widely considered to be the most important Hungarian play of the last 20 years". The odd title of the play refers in the first instance to the chicken heads that an old woman feeds to her cat. However, it can also be taken to refer more broadly to the obtuse behaviour of the main characters in the play. The play is an odd mixture of pathos and nihilism, written against the bleak background of Stalinist totalitarianism from which Hungary was emerging. As with much modern drama, there is no hero in the play. The only noble behaviour that one can find belongs to one of the characters in the past, when he was a child, but he is no longer as he was. The hint that what once existed might be achieved again is the only faint ray of hope in a very bleak view of the human condition.
Acting
Hilda Gobbi's final screen performance, absolutely devastating.
Direction
Zsámbéki preserves theatrical claustrophobia without stagey stiffness.
Director
Gábor Zsámbéki
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot during Hungary's slow 1980s liberalization, the film captures a nation metabolizing decades of silence.
Hilda Gobbi was 78 and visibly ill during filming; she died months after release, making her cat-feeding scenes unintentionally valedictory.
HU
