Goddamn I love a nice, quiet film. It’s so relaxing and such a nice break from the flashy multiplex fare. I love watching films that you can let just wash over you. The Hungarian film “Hukkle” provides that comfort, while at the same time coming up with an inventive way to tell a story.
It all starts with a hiccup. An old man takes a seat in front of his home with a bad case of the hiccups, surveying life about him. This is when we’re taken on a journey through the landscape of a tiny, rural Hungarian village. Without a single line of dialogue uttered, we witness the villagers going about their daily tasks, as do the animals and the plant life as well…and then there’s the discovery of a dead body in a lake. The camera lovingly focuses on every activity, showing how each one of these actions goes hand in hand with each other, slowly unfolding in a story that’s kind of like “Microcosmos” with a bit of a murder-mystery flavor.
“Hukkle” plays like a relaxing visit to a foreign land. So if you’re planning on taking the family on a vacation this summer, skip the traveling headache. Sit them down with “Hukkle” and tell them to shut up and watch. It’s not every vacation that comes with a dead body. I’ve tried to pay extra for that before and it just never pans out.
