Sunday, June 2, 2013

Katalin Varga (2009)

Director: Peter Strickland
Writer:    Peter Strickland
Cast:      Hilda Peter, Norbert Tanko, Laszlo Matray
Language: Hungarian


In the beautiful, otherworldly Carpathian Mountains a woman is traveling with a small boy in a horse and cart, looking to punish those who once abused her.

The film is set in Hungarian speaking part of Romania. Don't ask me why Peter Strickland a British director would do that. Maybe the same reason why he set his second film, Berbarian Sound Studio, in Italy. Or maybe he wanted to set it in modern times and only in this Eastern European wilderness he could fit the lawlessness of the story.


The film's time period is not apparent till the character talks about mobile phone signals. It is an assured debut film completed at a meager 28k pounds. The money mostly came from an inheritance from his uncle. Whilst his second film is a genre bending horror masterpiece with a Lynchian twist, this one is a revenge flick that don't tread the usual path with its ending. Strickland is certainly a director to watch out for.


Rating: 3.5/5

No comments:

Post a Comment