Taxidermia from Tartan in August
17 July 2007

It's rare for a Hungarian film to make it to these shores, which if Nimród Antal's smart and funny 2003 Kontroll is anything to go by is a damned shame. One that did was György Pálfi's 2002 Hukkle, a gentle but mesmerising dialogue-free look at a Hungarian rural community. Three years later Pálfi delivered Taxidermia, the story of three generations of men from one family who are hungry to achieve their dreams. As a young soldier during World War 2, grandfather Vendel develops a sexually obsessive appetite for his lieutenant’s wife and daughters, resulting in the birth of his illegitimate son, Kálmán. Growing into an obese man, he becomes Hungary’s leading contestant in the international speed eating competitions during the Communist regime. He marries a fellow speed eater, who gives birth to a tiny son. Lajos matures into an introspective taxidermist who finds himself looking after his father, now grown to an unmovable gargantuan size. However, as they feed on each other’s anxieties, events conspire to get them truly stuffed for posterity.

A satirical drama tinged with fantasy and laced with surrealism and a dash of body horror, Taxidermia is both stomach-churning and nourishing in equal measures, a twisted exploration of our primal human obsessions that you are unlikely to forget in a hurry. The sort of film that, according to Philip French in The Observer, "might give even David Cronenberg a bad night's sleep."

Tartan Video have announced the film for a UK DVD release on 13th August 2007 with an anamorphic widescreen picture and optional Dolby 2.0 stereo, Dolby surround 5.1 and DTS surround 5.1 soundtracks. Extras have yet to be confirmed, but the RRP is set at £19.99.