My second full-length Sight & Sound review has just appeared in print, of György Pálfi’s almost dialogue-free debut Hukkle (2004). Or, “I’ve got this weird Hungarian film that no-one else has taken on – do you fancy doing it?”, which is roughly how the commission went.

Unsurprisingly, I did fancy doing it, and I loved it. To some extent it suffers from the usual calling-card syndrome (there are a couple of CGI effects that, while undoubtedly show-stoppers, are a misjudgement for that reason), but the premise is so strong that it could survive a lot more than that. Essentially, it’s a study of village life, the twist being that Pálfi draws no real distinction between its human, animal and insect inhabitants: they’re all stared at with the same quizzical, quasi-anthropological eye. And then it gradually becomes clear that the female humans are treating their menfolk with the same ruthlessness as certain insect species…