JEONJU, North Jeolla Province -- Ildiko Enyedi’s ethereal tale of romance “On Body and Soul” begins with a stag and a doe rubbing against each other in a snow-covered forest. The stag advances, and the doe steps away.

The scene is later revealed to be the collective dream of Maria and Endre, the romantic leads in the Hungarian film invited to open this year’s Jeonju International Film Festival.

“We were looking for birch trees, like pillars of a cathedral, very high above eye level, no bushes,” said Enyedi at a press preview of the film at the Jeonju Cine Complex on Thursday. “The beautiful wavy curves of the animals are much more visible in these abstract woods.”

The film traces the cautious romance between an intensely shy woman and a man tired of life, played respectively by Alexandra Borbely and Geza Morcsanyi.

Maria is the newly hired quality inspector of the cattle slaughterhouse in which Endre works as the financial manager. Detached from others and only doing her work -- grading the meat -- Maria avoids the mess of human interaction and bloody slaughter.

“It is a rare film that moves at a deliberate pace,” said JIFF executive programmer Kim Young-jin. “Our festival promotes alternative films. This kind of film is the perfect alternative to the fast-paced commercial films of today.”

On choosing cattle and deer to serve as metaphors for her characters, Enyedi noted that “cows and bulls have very expressive faces.”

“It could have been pigs ... or chickens. But there I think we would feel only horror. (With cattle), we feel that a very complex being is finishing its life there (in the slaughterhouse. ... And deer are the most evident brothers and sisters of cows.”

The characters start out leading existences as bland as those of cattle. The two blunder through their introversion and tentatively become closer, in both reality and dreams.

“In so many ways we misunderstand introverted people,” said Enyedi. “I hope (the film) can reach people here as well because it tries to touch those fundamental feelings and fears we all have.”

The director mentioned psychologist Karl Jung has one of the inspirations behind the film. “He puts the accent not on the personal, but on the common unconscious, what connects us all. It is expressed very directly in our dreams.”

But Enyedi stressed that the film is rooted in reality.

“I didn’t want to show some idealistic happy, happy life. (The deer) are in the winter woods. They don’t have food, they are cold, they can be hunted, but they have a full life that the cattle (in the slaughterhouse) don’t have.”

The 61-year-old director’s ninth film, “On Body and Soul” won the Golden Bear prize at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. It screened Thursday evening as the opening film of the 18th edition of JIFF, which runs to May 6.


By Rumy Doo
(doo@heraldcorp.com)