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Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Great, atmospheric effort from Strickland. I can only imagine he had some affinity with this part of Romania whether from childhood or other. The soundtrack and some of the slow lingering shots (esp. the scene looking at child, mother and horse not moving from behind, and the forest shot) were very affecting, and reminded me of Tarkovsky (not in a bad way ;)I got to thinking of the inextricable nature of all things, of how everything (as a single glorious 'entity') was so deviously and religiously bound up that to even attempt to extract something from it was tantamount to destructuring the whole (and thus destroying its royalty). That a film can inspire me (it has to be said not single-handedly)to such ends is indicative of a deep metaphysical quality within it.There is a particular sentence that the man utters towards the end of the film that resonates deeply towards this metaphysis. I shan't explicate it, nor even repeat it, but you shall know it when you hear it.Thanks for this Strickland, and all who were involved in and outside it (even the guy who carted the extra film stock when, presumably, you ran out ;) 'Ultimately, there are no parts at all.' Fritjof Capra, The Web of Life.

As others have commented this is a directorial debut and for that alone it deserves high marks. The director shot the film over a 17-day period, which fits with the spare and lean story of a young woman (Katalin Varga) who takes a journey that we learn, as we travel with her, is one of revenge.I thought the story line was very good because it allowed lots of moments that were eerie and verging on horrific as Katalin's memories of her rape surface. For example as she looks into the forest where her son is running, the forest becomes a dark place in which evils hide. The sound and music used in the film are evocative and a big contributor to the atmosphere of prevalent menace.What was most satisfying was the way in which Katalin's revenge plan unravels as her experiences give way to lots of different feelings particularly around her son, who is travelling with her and is the result of the rape. The conversation that Katalin has with Antal, her attacker and her son's father, felt so real filled as it was with brittle feelings of disappointment. This film manages to cleverly underline that what we think and imagine we might do and what we are capable of enacting are two different things. Especially as the monster rapist in Katalin's mind and memories is found to be an ordinary man who is kind and hospitable to strangers in need.There is a surprise ending where the theme of revenge is played out unexpectedly and before that an unforeseen tragedy that visits Antal. Both of which feed the religious theme that is also present throughout; particularly around evil and mercy.The director's next project is a horror that I look forward to for his use of horror elements in Katalin Varga work well with other elements such as folk telling and a thriller about revenge.

I enjoyed this film and the lead actress (Hilda Peter) gives a memorable, strong performance as a wronged woman seeking vengeance. The rural setting of Eastern Europe seemed appropriate where patriarchal societies still exist and blood-feuds common.The use of landscape, the story of vengeance gave the film the tone of a folk-myth and the end of the film, with Katalin confronting her rapist in a boat with his innocent, loving wife, was highly dramatic, the boat turning around the river in circles, reflecting the maelstrom of emotions.I thought the film well-structured, a basic revenge plot, but also more subtle than that: about husbands & wives and secrets, sin & guilt as well as a haunting, atmospheric soundtrack. But also how Katalin's revenge does not quite go as planned and her assailant is not a two-dimensional villain.I had difficulties reconciling some of the characterisation, especially Antal, the assailant. Perhaps his act, that of a normally good quiet man, is indicative that we can be all prone to evil, but Antal's characterisation jarred with the brutal act he had committed in the past. I think it would have been more plausible if his accomplice had been the rapist and Antal the bystander who had done nothing.Katalin's revenge does not go as anticipated, claiming the innocent as well as the guilty.I feel some of the problems in the film are perhaps due to its limited budget rather than ambition/intent. The ending was bleak, with the cycle of revenge continuing. I did think Antal would redeem himself, but the film perhaps ends on a darker, truthful note.

Just some tidbits: In an after screening q&a session the author said he wanted to originally cast the movie in Albania, where it would IMO be a good fit with the patriarch governed extended families being the dominant societal organisational form and blood line revenge a.k.a. besa still alive in rural parts of Albania and Kosovo.But that region in the times of shooting of the film was not a particularly safe place for an itinerant cinematographer, so Hungary and Romania were chosen instead. This being perhaps fortunate for an intimate story of the film, it would be IMO hard to avoid a different political context, including war atrocities and mass rapings taking place in Kosovo at the time of shooting.Still the Katalin's impulse, and a quick decision to search for her rapist, would be clearer in rural Albania, as within the gossip run partially traditional and partially already modern Romanian village. We are therefore left to our own devices to figure out her motivation during the course of the movie, where the images of dark woods and music leading us to expect some Dracula offspring or something equally sinister to jump out any minute now, do not exactly help us there.The cinematography is really beautiful, the director commenting that it's not that difficult to be director of photography in Transylvania, where you have so many interesting things and locations to point your camera to. So many decisions about locations were made on the spot without much planning.The movie was envisioned, shot and brought to a rough cut on a 16mm film using a director's small inheritance of 30.000 Euro. He attributes his finding a producer to finance the blow-up to 35mm to pure luck, but without this luck probably no-one would ever see this very beautiful movie. At the point of my writing the distribution contracts and all the awards brought him about a third of this investment back.I have to mention the scene where Katalin tells the story of her being raped to her rapist and his wife, as something, that will remain in my memory for some time. Hilda Peter in the role of Katalin Varga is great. Much of the film's appeal is due to her and also other actor's performance.