Hukkle

An old man hiccups. He shuffles slowly about his morning ritual and then takes his place on a bench outside his cottage, beside the road, still hiccuping. A goose goes about its business. Flies buzz. A cat earns its living. A runaway cart causes a stir in the village. The old man hiccups. A lovingly photographed natural history, these opening shots announce György Pálfi's Hukkle as a film that will proceed in its own way to its own destination, without regard to convention. The film is told almost entirely without dialogue, but is alive to sound; we spend observant, introspective hours in a Hungarian hamlet where nothing much seems to happen -- oh, except that there's a suspicious death... A mesmerizing pastoral symphony. Finely attuned to the sensual possibilities, both in nature and in cinema.

The 4K digital restoration using the original image negative and the original digital sound master was carried out by the National Film Institute Hungary - Film Archive in 2023, in the frame of the "Long-term restoration programme of the Hungarian film heritage.

Grading supervised by Gergely Pohárnok DP. Sound remastering by Tamás Zányi sound engineer. Hungarian submission to the 2002 Academy Awards.