On Body and Soul, film review: Dreams from a Budapest abattoir

Hungary's official entry for the Oscars Best Foreign Language Film is slow, brazenly farcical and not a little contrived. Endre (Geza Morcsanyi), the one-armed boss of a Budapest abattoir, finds himself drawn to conscientious, sociallyawkward, new quality inspector Maria (Alexandra Borbely). When vital drugs are stolen from the workplace Endre is forced to hire a psychologist, curvaceous, conscientious Klara (Reka Tenki), who interrogates all the employees about their dreams.

As a result of her detective work Endre discovers that he and Maria dream the same dream (two deer stand in the woods nuzzling). The man and woman can’t communicate. But their night-time brains are in sync. What does it all mean? As in the live action films of Czech legend Jan Svankmajer, it’s hard to be sure.

Whatever else, writer-director Ildiko Enyedi wants us to care about Maria. And, partly because Borbely’s performance is so committed, we do. Scenes in which cows are carved up foreshadow an extremely disturbing bath-tub moment.

Typically Enyedi sees the funny side (Maria chooses a woozy song by Laura Marling to amplify her melancholy mood, only for the cassette to get chewed in the machine). Poetry is punctured again when a bout of love-making is sliced and diced into its component parts — a motionless hand; a face, huffing and puffing.

On Body and Soul won the Golden Bear at Berlin but seems unlikely to set the Oscars on fire. It’s one for the quietly desperate — a grim fairytale that suggests it’s possible to keep the wolf from the door.

Cert 18, 116 mins