Transylvania

Katalin Varga looks like a strange beast -- a British-Romanian-Hungarian co-production (the first I've ever come across), directed by Englishman Peter Strickland.


It feels like one of those late Westerns, a sweeping epic where the majesty and grandeur of the landscape seem almost to overwhelm the humans and their concerns, grave though those might be.


The eponymous central character takes her son in their horse-drawn cart, heading out of her village for a place unknown. Her husband is left behind. There seems to have been some sort of scandal, but the details are fuzzy.


It becomes clear fairly soon that Katalin is not someone who you should cross lightly. At times she seems to be composed entirely of naked willpower.


This culture feels so alien -- not just the (to me) strange-sounding language, but the overwhelmingly rural nature of life. It's as if the modern world has only superficially penetrated here, the occasional cheap cheep of a mobile phone giving us the only clue that we're even in the current century.

This is actor Tibor Pálffy.
He has a very nice penis.

I keep reading that Katalin Varga is a feminist revenge movie, which is both patronising and irritating. It just so happens the character seeking revenge is a woman: feminism it ain't. But it's an engrossing and rich film.