A random off-the-path viewing choice at the Toronto International Film Festival was the beguiling and delightful Hen (Kota). What was a leap of faith turned out to be quite rewarding. After Gunda, about a family of barnyard pigs, and the mesmerizing EO, featuring a donkey wandering Europe, do audiences need another up-close saga of an animal surviving in a hostile environment? The answer: a resounding yes. Why shouldn’t live-action animal dramas be an emerging subgenre of their own? These protagonists are ready-made movie stars. 

Hungarian filmmaker György Pálfi (Hukkle, Taxidermia) follows, from egg to hatchling to maturity, a black feathered hen that is immediately ostracized by the other furry and bright yellow chicks on the industrial farm. Pálfi contends that his government has kept him from filming in Hungary because of the potential for critical/allegorical material. Thus, the plucky (sorry) protagonist’s odyssey occurs in Greece, an appropriate setting for the fraught journey ahead. There, she is taken in by the owner of a dilapidated taverna not far from the sea. He keeps her in a coop with others of this kind. However, this bird wants to fly, and makes numerous escapes, none of them great.  

Animals aren’t the only living beings who suffer the intended or unintended consequences far from their control. As in EO, the humans are a lot more dangerous and unpredictable than animals. The hen’s adopted Greek family has many shady business dealings, to put it mildly. Unfortunately, their antics take the movie out of the G, or even PG, category. Otherwise, this dialogue-light 96-minute adventue is for all ages.

The chicken in question is a natural star, comically quizzical in her many close-ups. If there is any anthropomorphizing here, it is on the part of the audience reading (or imposing) thoughts on the feathered female and her adventures. Though the hen doesn’t always get along with her brethren, the animals were apparently not put in harm’s way, according to the reassuring credits and the press notes, which also include names for “Starring Hens.” Actually, eight Leghorn chickens portray the resilient nomad—they had months of training—and no CGI or AI was used. (Presumably, documentary footage was used for a few cycle-of-life moments.) The director rightfully calls this, “an organic chicken movie.”