ON BODY AND SOUL
Slaughterhouse two…
CERTIFICATE 18 DIRECTOR Ildikó Enyedi STARRING Géza Morcsányi, Alexandra Borbély, Zoltán Schneider SCREENPLAY Ildikó Enyedi DISTRIBUTOR MUBI RUNNING TIME 116 mins
more about sweetbreads than sweet nothings, this offbeat but absorbing Hungarian love story (the Golden Bear winner at this year’s Berlin Film Festival) nimbly combines arthouse dreaminess with brutal everyday realities. Possibly the only cinema romance featuring unflinching abattoir action, its tale of lonely Budapest slaughterhouse managers discovering a mystic connection is weirdly compelling.
Veteran director Ildikó Enyedi’s slow-burn dramedy is languorously paced but full of emotional suspense. Heavyweight themes such as loneliness, human-animal bonds and longing are explored with a lightness of touch. Mixing in unexpected elements including a police search for stolen cattle Viagra, a menacing love rival and heart-inmouth tragi-comedy, Enyedi keeps things unpredictable and deploys an austere, unassumingly beautiful visual style to ensure the genre-mix meshes neatly.
Moody middle-aged exec Endre (a deliciously deadpan Géza Morcsányi) and newcomer Alexandra Borbély’s shy meat inspector are touchingly understated, torn between desire and despair at their daytime awkwardness together. Get your chops around this. Kate Stables
THE VERDICT
This offally appealing arthouse tale of elusive love in an abattoir is a prime-cut, for the strong-of-stomach.