When I heard the news that Radiance Films would be launching Chasm Films, a new sub-label dedicated to underground genre cinema from across the world, I was delighted and intrigued. When it was announced that their first release under this label would be the world Blu-Ray premiere of Hungarian filmmaker György Pálfi’s controversial portmanteau film Taxidermia (2006), I was all in on this brave new venture.
Based on the short stories of author Lajos Parti Nagy, Taxidermia is a blackly comic anthology epic that tells the story of three generations of deeply troubled men against the backdrop of Hungarian history and politics. Whilst I can only assume that this release of the film was announced to coincide with the release of Pálfi’s latest feature, Hen (2025), in UK cinemas, it is nonetheless interesting that this celebrated and controversial Hungarian satire is being re-released internationally shortly after the fall of the right-wing Orbán regime, which director Pálfi has been a vocal opponent of – an event which recently, at the time of writing, put Hungarian politics in the international spotlight. Now remastered in high definition by the folks at Radiance Films, there has seemingly never been a better time to take the plunge and check out this strange, darkly funny, and frequently nauseating piece of eastern European cinema – just maybe don’t watch this one whilst eating.
Taxidermia opens in the midst of the Second World War, where a soldier named Vendel (Csaba Czene) struggles with loneliness and bizarre, perverse sexual frustrations whilst stationed at a rural farm under the watch of his neglectful lieutenant (István Gyuricza). Decades later, the lieutenant’s son, Kálmán (Gergely Trócsányi), is a professional speed-eater who fights for the affection of the beautiful Gizi (Adél Stanczel) whilst under pressure from his uncle Jenő (István Hunyadkürthy) to become an international champion. Finally, in the present day, Kálmán’s son Lajos (Marc Bischoff) works as a taxidermist whilst caring for his immobile father, who resents him for his scrawny build and lack of interest in speed-eating; when tragedy strikes, Lagos makes the decision to complete work on his masterpiece – a morbid work of art which will immortalise the stories of all three generations in memorably shocking fashion.
For every scene featuring projectile vomiting or an unfortunate encounter with a cockerel, there’s one which genuinely made me think, “wait, you’re allowed to put that in a film?”; there’s even the occasional shot which, matters of tastefulness and ethics aside, I was amazed by the fact that this film got past the BBFC unscathed.
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Pálfi’s creative vision for this piece is a wholly unique and singular one, full of a love for images, storytelling, and the grotesque, accompanied by an interest in the complex yet rich history of his home country. Nonetheless, I believe that Taxidermia would be in good company if paired with the works of Roy Andersson, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Álex de la Iglesia, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, John Waters, or one of the many other celebrated cinematic surrealists and provocateurs who I could positively compare Pálfi’s work on this film to. As with most anthologies, the segments vary in pace and quality, but for a piece which takes place over the course of three generations with three distinct stylistic approaches, it manages to be surprisingly consistent in its ability to shock and entertain.
Outside of Hungary, Taxidermia’s reputation has largely been one of notoriety for its gross-out elements, of which there are plenty, and in spite of how elegantly-crafted this film is, I’d say the film earns its reputation. This film is frequently deeply disgusting, which I mean as a point of praise; there are bodily fluids aplenty, bizarre and immoral sex acts, and naturally the film’s titular taxidermy element deserves its own special mention. Taxidermia’s grotesque elements feel like a monstrous hybrid of Roald Dahl’s “Revolting Rhymes” and his more cruel and crude stories for adults – and even if you’re familiar with the latter, you might be surprised to see how far this crosses the line of “good taste” at points. For every scene featuring projectile vomiting or an unfortunate encounter with a cockerel, there’s one which genuinely made me think, “wait, you’re allowed to put that in a film?”; there’s even the occasional shot which, matters of tastefulness and ethics aside, I was amazed by the fact that this film got past the BBFC unscathed.
One prominent aspect to the film which I can’t personally comment on in any definite way is its portrayal of fatness and larger bodies, particularly in its nature as a gross-out comedy. Though I highly doubt that anything in the film was intended to offend, I did wonder whilst watching how someone with a larger build would feel about how bodies like theirs are represented – both in terms of positive reactions and negatives. The most bizarre and potentially controversial example of this is the depiction of an elderly Kálmán in the third segment, played by actor Gábor Máté under heavy prosthetics, who is presented as an abusive, self-destructive monster of a man who has become consumed by his internalised pressures to become a speed-eating champion, downing blocks of margarine on the regular; the image of Kálmán shown in the film is one entirely detached from any possible reality, and is entirely the stuff of fairy-tales and cartoon logic, but whilst the film’s intentions with his character are clear, I do wonder if some viewers might take issue with the decision to portray an obese man as a grotesque villain.
Yet, as with any good piece of taxidermy, there is beauty in the morbidity. There’s the occasional image in Taxidermia which is so ambitious and gorgeously-achieved that it left my jaw physically hanging open; you know that there’s something special about a film when it features a scene that turns a bathtub into an object of profundity and wonder. It’s a visually stunning film, even moreso in its newly restored form, which is a thing of beauty in itself; an archival making-of included on the disc features clips taken from the previous DVD version of the film, and the difference between those and the Chasm Films transfer used for this release are night and day. This release is, without a doubt, the best that Pálfi’s film has ever looked, and the new remaster does justice to the epic scale and long, sweeping camera takes that are a large part of why Taxidermia is such an effective and spellbinding work of cinematic art.
This release also features a delectable platter of extras, both new and archival. The aforementioned making-of doc from 2006 is the finest offering on the menu, not only providing extensive insight into the film’s production and extensive special effects work, but also giving us a closer look at some brilliantly bizarre production design details which we only get brief glimpses of in the actual film. The newly-filmed interview with György Pálfi included on the disc is a more slight affair, but it does provide some interesting and helpful context towards his creative process, as well as being a neat opportunity to catch up with the director and hear his thoughts on the film 20 years after its release. Also included are two short films from Pálfi: The Fish (1997), which is interesting as a kind of test run for the ideas and tonal approach explored in Taxidermia but is otherwise not particularly memorable, and Shaman vs Icarus (2003 – made for the longer anthology A Bus Came…) which is a short, silly, and very stylised superhero homage which is a little janky in parts, but is charming enough and features some very solid digital FX work. Finally, the release includes two different versions of Pálfi’s music video for the song “Erdő” by the band Hollywoodoo, which was filmed on one of the sets used for Taxidermia and makes extensive use of clips from the film; my personal preference of the two versions is the Director’s Cut, though in either case, the song is rather catchy.
TAXIDERMIA IS OUT NOW ON CHASM/RADIANCE FILMS BLU-RAY
