Taxidermia

[4] With elements of dark comedy and body horror, the story is told by means of three generations of Hungarian men, commencing with a WWII military orderly, moving on to a Cold War-era aspiring speed-eater, and concluding with a modern-day taxidermist.

At a remote Hungarian military outpost, orderly Morosgoványi Vendel lives a wretched existence of servitude beneath the heel of his lieutenant, Öreg Balatony Kálmán.

So realistic are these fantasies that in one ambiguous instance, Morosgoványi sleeps with and impregnates the lieutenant's wife and "wakes up" to find himself engaged in an act of sodomy with a slaughtered pig.

Coached and influenced by the strict Jenő, Kálmán's life revolves around training for the eventual day when the IOC recognizes speed-eating as a legitimate sport.

When not working from his taxidermy shop or failing in his attempts to lead a normal life, Lajoska purchases groceries for his father Kálmán, who has grown so monstrously obese that he cannot leave the chair in his claustrophobic apartment.

With little left to live for, he locks himself in a homemade surgical harness and through the use of sedatives, painkillers and a heart-lung machine, begins removing his own internal organs.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Surreal and visually striking, Taxidermia is, at times, graphic and difficult to watch, but creatively touches on disturbing subjects with imagination and wit.