What are 'chicky-wikies' made from? It's best if you don't know. Though then you wouldn't want to watch Anders Thomas Jensen's film. Because if you do, you will soon find out. We will give away this much: Given its theme, The Green Butchers is a close cousin to Delicatessen and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. It's true that the former looks at the surreal and burlesque, while the latter uses the spectacle and operatic side of using people for gastronomic purposes. The power of The Green Butchers, on the other hand, lies in how it lays the foundation for an everyday story of two ambitious entrepreneurs in the meat industry. What's their motivation? Nothing different to what motivates us. The desire to break free, for self-identity, a deficit of love and recognition. And in some ways the inability to account for and settle one's own past. Our heroes are simple men who want to get over their pain and humiliations. And as they ponder their obsessions, they try to find out if there is any life/happiness beyond them. All of this turns on a point of absurdity: what would happen if we could free ourselves of certain inconvenient individuals in a manner which is both environmentally friendly and excellent for business?
For around two decades now, The Green Butchers has been considered one of the finest examples of Scandinavian/Northern filmmaking. It is a little brutal, as whether you are eating or being eating is far from irrelevant, yet behind the black story in the foreground, small, sad human dramas unfold. You find yourself asking whatever happened to the happy ending. Where is the key to unlocking the human soul? Who knows? One may find it in the broth, perhaps.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest