Category: Good

Messages and Meaning

Hen is definitely an unconventional experience. In typical European fashion, the film moves at a slow pace, and since the main character is a hen, there is almost no dialogue. Despite this, however, Hen manages to hold the viewer’s interest. The skillful camerawork shows us what life looks like through the eyes of a hen searching for her place in a world full of beauty and danger.

The film displays a good sense of humor, satirizing people from an outsider’s perspective, while remaining respectful of the value of both human and animal life.

The main message is clear – everyone sees in the hen what they themselves are. A good person sees her as a lively and spirited creature, while a bitter one sees her as mindless and aggressive.

On one side is the old man – a kind-hearted and freedom-loving man who respects the hen’s spirit.

On the other side, the mobster – a power-obsessed villain who saw only the bird’s tendency to devour its own kind, just as he himself does.

And in the middle, a beautiful black hen who simply wants to be herself and lay her eggs.

Plot

The plot skillfully intertwines the adventures of a hen seeking refuge and a way to start a family with the harsh fate of undocumented immigrants who risk their lives in search of a better future. The story boldly delves into the full range of human emotions. Just as we laugh at the flirtations between the hen and the rooster one moment, the next we fall silent in the face of the brutal deaths of innocent people.

The hen’s journey from the oppressive corporation, where life is merely a resource, through the wild and perilous forest, to the refuge on a kind man’s farm, where she must find her place, is quite reminiscent of the journey each of us takes.

The story is both sad, because of the death of the only person of value, and beautiful, because of the hen’s success in creating her own family and helping the outcasts find acceptance where the system had previously denied it to them.

Characters

The Hen – Brave and resourceful, the hen never gave up on her goals and remained true to her nature.

The Old Man – A kind and hardworking man who feels the need to do the right thing and stay close to nature.

Important details

• When the hen watches a movie about a Tyrannosaurus rex—her closest living relative—it’s a perfect example of humor that doesn’t need dialogue

• The hen watches them make an omelet and is outraged by it, which is a curious scene.

• In the final scene, the hen has chicks, but she isn’t actually a mother hen.

• The hen gets a chance at freedom because the system considers her ugly and rejects those who are different, which is a romantic detail.

• The mobster gives the little hen chicken to eat so he can accuse her of cannibalism, but in reality, this only confirms his own desires

• The scene in which we discover that the egg laid on the fan killed the immigrants is very powerful and shows life in its raw form