Men & Chicken

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Movie
German title Men & Chicken
Original title Mænd & Høns
Country of production Denmark
original language Danish
Publishing year 2015
length 104 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Thomas Jensen is different
script Thomas Jensen is different
production Kim Magnusson ,
Tivi Magnusson
music Frans Bak ,
Jeppe Kaas
camera Sebastian Blenkov
cut Not so Villadsen
occupation

Men & Chicken (Original title: Mænd & Høns ) is a Danish black comedy from 2015 by Anders Thomas Jensen .

action

Gabriel and Elias are brothers who have little in common: Gabriel is a brooding professor of evolutionary philosophy and at least had a rudimentary social life in the past, while Elias, on the other hand, is a choleric, slightly psychopathic, good-for-nothing with an exuberant libido who is constantly on the lookout for women , but is unsuccessful.

When their father dies, he leaves them a videotape on which he left a message for them. He confesses on the videotape that Gabriel and Elias are adopted and have a common biological father, but different mothers. The biological father lives on the island of Ork. Further information cannot be found on the cassette because the father accidentally dubbed parts of the tape. On Gabriel's initiative, the two brothers set out for the island of Ork to visit their biological father, who is said to be a well-known stem cell researcher.

When they arrive in the only place on the island, they are brought to the house by the mayor's sister. In front of the house there is a fight with the residents Gregor, Franz and Josef, who turn out to be half-brothers of Gabriel and Elias and who regard the newcomers as intruders and drive them away by force.

Shortly afterwards Gabriel and Elias get to know the mayor Flemming and his daughter Ellen in a traffic accident. Flemming's concern is the population of the place, which is 41 - with less than 40 inhabitants, the place would lose its administrative independence. After being told the story of the two brothers, he immediately hopes for a permanent stay for the two of them and willingly drives them to their father's property, which is a former sanatorium that is in an extremely dilapidated state.

When they meet again, there is another fight in which Gabriel is pinched a nerve. At the mediation of Flemming, they get to know each other, and Gabriel, who is temporarily dependent on a wheelchair, and Elias temporarily move into the sanatorium. Conditions there are dire: the huge house, although there is electricity and running water, is dilapidated to the limit of uninhabitability, farm animals live in it, and the three socially brutal half-brothers are in a neglected state. Contact with the father, who has his room on the second floor, is denied Gabriel and Elias with reference to the almost 100-year-old's need for rest.

After a few days, Gabriel had enough of the three residents' delaying tactics. He goes to the second floor and discovers the largely skeletonized corpse of his biological father, whose death the three residents had hidden in order to avoid evacuation of the building. Against the wishes of the four other brothers, Gabriel has the body picked up by an undertaker, much to the concern of Mayor Flemming, who now only manages 40 islanders.

The presence of the two townspeople has a positive influence on Gregor, Franz and Josef, they behave more civilly, pay more attention to their appearance, and spokesman Franz agrees to reapply for a previously terminated position in the local kindergarten.

Gabriel's interest now shifts to the locked door to the basement, where the father of the five carried out his research and to which Franz forbids access. Gabriel already suspected what was to be found there when he saw mutant animals such as B. discovered a chicken with the head of a sheep. One night, with the help of Gregor, whom he had bribed, he gains access to the cellar and finds out that all of their fathers were working on fertile crossbreeds of different animal breeds in a laboratory in the cellar. Horrified, he escapes from the sanatorium property, decides to flee the island and stays with the Flemming Mayor until the ferry leaves. Later, Franz had his job interview, which he completed with Elias and which turned out unfavorably; in the end he knocks down the kindergarten director. Mayor Flemming is now called upon to have the brothers who are considered insane to be brought to a sanatorium on the mainland. After some hesitation, Gabriel stands up for his brothers, and in his own interest Flemming is quick to agree. Gabriel now gains access to the lowest part of the cellar wing and solves the mystery of the brothers' origins: Motivated by his own inability to conceive, their father, with the help of surrogate mothers, created hybrids of humans and animals and then killed the mothers; the five brothers have genes from different farm animals and are therefore unable to procreate themselves.

The brothers decide to continue their father's experiments for their own good. The film closes with a scene with a large, happy family of mutants.

History of origin

Director and screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen at Fantastic Fest 2015

Jensen had already worked with Mikkelsen, Bro and Lie Kaas in 2005 for his film Adam's Apples , which is also a comedy about behavioral oddities. Men & Chicken was shot on Fyn (Denmark) and in the Beelitz-Heilstätten in Beelitz (Germany). The theatrical release in Denmark was on February 5, 2015, the German release on July 2, 2015.

reception

Christian Horn sees “subtle, malicious humor” and “memorable characters” for Filmstarts.de and describes Men & Chicken as a “provocative, entertaining art-house comedy”, but notes that it does not come close to Jensen's previous excursions into comedy. Kino.de noted “absurd dialogues and deadly serious images” in the “delicious satire” and described the film as “probably the weirdest tragic comedy of the season”. The Tagesspiegel criticizes a predictable plot and an “outrageous” ending, “hypocritical depth” and “cheap gags” and only registered a “handful of strong scenes” and their best actors on the positive side.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Men & Chicken . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , April 2015 (PDF; test number: 151 276 K).
  2. ↑ Review on Filmstarts.de. Retrieved July 14, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Review on Kino.de. Retrieved July 14, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Review on Tagesspiegel.de. Retrieved July 14, 2015 .