Men, women, children and the beasts of the forest

(Katalin Varga (2009, UK), written & directed by Peter Strickland, with Hilda Péter, Norbert Tankó, Tibor Pálffy, Melinda Kántor, Roberto Giacomello)

Antal has raped Katalin, while Gergely has watched the scene and laughed. The rape has resulted in the birth of Katalin’s son, Orban. Katalin has lived with the secret for 12 years, out of fear that her husband would kick her out if he knew. Her husband finally finds out and he does kick out Katalin, who tells Orban that they are going to visit her sick mother. Katalin finds Gergely and kills him. When she comes across Antal, she has the surprise to find a good, hard-working man, adored by his wife and who bonds instantly with Orban. Katalin reveals her identity to Antal and sets in motion a chain of events that conclude with both the suicide of Antal’s wife and her own demise at the hands of Gergely’s brother-in-law.

This is a very powerful, fairly predictable and a little causeless drama, with sharp dialogues and impeccably carried out by the Modiglianesque Hilda Peter in the title role. The story is set in a self-policing world, where the presence of cars and mobile phones belies the traditional living and sensibilities, a static world steeped in ancestral rhythms, where eagles circle the sky above sheep herds that crowd hillsides and pool into fertile valleys, where Katalin swings for years in the grip of traumatic memories and the only sign that one is moving at all is the occasional shuddering of a horse as it pulls the wagon forward; a foreboding, unfathomable world (as revealed by weird sound effects and grainy photography) where treacherous depths lurk everywhere below the surface and old offences are never forgotten or forgiven. It is the classical ‘hill-valley’ mode of life described by writers like Blaga, Sadoveanu (Katalin reminds of Vitoria Lipan’s character in Baltagul) and in folk ballads. Whether or not such a world still exists or has ever existed, beyond legends, literary theory and an outside eye (or imagination), whether the story reveals a certain truth about the people of the land, perpetuates simplifying stereotypes or remains a fairytale set in a random exotic location… I suppose these questions are of less importance. All in all it makes for an interesting film with a handful of quite memorable scenes.

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