Free Fall

György Pálfi | Hungary

long
80'
English subtitles

György Palfí’s work should be screened in The Netherlands, it’s that simple. His films are always surprising, if not astonishing. But never fake. Because wouldn’t we all like to crawl back into the womb sometimes? Or jump off the roof? Well, there you go.

See yourself seated on a deckchair at the Stenen Hoofd. Behind the screen is the Stenen Silo. A rock created by human hands. On the roof you see a little lady. A black shadow against a darkening sky.

She steps off. She falls down one floor after the other, while people continue their lives as if nothing happened. She lands with a bang. Groceries roll down the street. Silence. And then she slowly gets up again and shuffles back into the building. The elevator is broken. She stumbles up the stairs. As if all of this is just part of her daily routine.

But all those people on all those floors all have their own problems. Someone would love to shove their baby back where it came from. Someone wants to have sex without getting dirty. Someone is the only one to see the elephant in the room (a cow in this case). And much more that I won’t reveal here (but there is sex and violence involved).

We see all kinds of stories in all kinds of styles, and in his lack of restraint György Pálfi proves to be masterful.

We see it in a mixture of styles, right up to and including a Korean sitcom. György Pálfi proves to be masterful in his lack of constraint. Go watch the trailers of his first two films, Hukkle and Taxidermia, and you will understand: you won’t know beforehand what you’re going to see and it will definitely look good.

Just like Pluk, Pálfi’s world – a world just beyond reality, hard to believe (but you have to, because you’re there), temporary, absurd, yet still familiar – often feels more real than that hazy dream we call reality.

KEES Driessen (translation by Marjan Westbroek)