The Hungarian film Taxidermia delves into the morose, the experimental and the flat-out bizarre. It’s a story about three family generations, told in three separate parts. The first revolves around Vendel, a somewhat simple farmhand who seems obsessed with sex. The farm owner’s two daughters are his objects of desire; however, he has an affair with his employer’s wife, who gives birth to his son, Kalman. The second segment follows Kalman as an adult, who has grown up to become one of Hungary’s foremost competitors in speed-eating. At a contest for this sport, he spies Gizi and resolves to win her hand. After much eating against the competitors from Russia and Norway, he succeeds and they have a son together called Lajos. Lajos grows up to be a taxidermist and helps to look after his incredibly ungrateful and obese father and his gigantic cats, which he breeds for competition.

This movie was a treat to watch visually, with techniques reminiscent of Jean Pierre-Jeunet’s films (Delicatessen, Amelie) and David Cronenberg’s body-horror works (eXistenZ, The Fly). One scene starts with an embryo of a baby inside its mother’s stomach before the camera pulls back and reveals who the mother is. Be warned though, this is not a film for the faint-hearted. It contains scenes of bestiality, explicit masturbation, sexual intercourse and paedophilic themes, not to mention a five-minute graphic sequence showing the self-evisceration of a man. That scene in particular was the only time the audience remained silent. One woman in fact left the cinema!

I liked this movie for all its strange plot twists and left of centre characters, but for the average moviegoer it might be too much. It definitely left a unique impression and should be on the discernable movie viewer’s list of films to see this year.