7.6 /10 1 Votes
82% Rotten Tomatoes Directed by Anders Thomas Jensen Running time 104 minutes Initial release 5 February 2015 Screenplay Anders Thomas Jensen | 6.7/10 IMDb 4/5 The Guardian Written by Anders Thomas Jensen Country Denmark Director Anders Thomas Jensen Music director Jeppe Kaas, Frans Bak | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring David Dencik
Mads Mikkelsen
Nikolaj Lie Kaas
Søren Malling
Nicolas Bro Release date 5 February 2015 (2015-02-05) Awards Robert Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Cast Mads Mikkelsen, David Dencik, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Nicolas Bro, Søren Malling Similar Anders Thomas Jensen movies, Mads Mikkelsen movies, Dark comedies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Men & Chicken (Danish: Mænd og Høns) is a 2015 Danish comedy film directed by Anders Thomas Jensen. It was shown in the Vanguard section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. It was one of three films shortlisted by Denmark to be their submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.
Contents
Plot
Two "brothers" (Gabriel and Elias) are informed after their father's death that they both are adopted half-brothers. They discover that their biological father is Evelio Thanatos, a geneticist specialized in stem cell research. To learn about their mother and to meet their biological father, the brothers choose to visit the Island of Ork where they find out that they have three other half-brothers (Franz, Josef and Gregor). Both Gabriel and Elias are welcomed with a beating, but in due course, the brothers get along. All five half-brothers have hare-lips and unattractive facial features or deformities.
Soon, Gabriel and Elias discover that their father is dead and the other brothers have kept it as a secret. Gabriel contacts Flemming, the Mayor of the Island, and makes arrangements for a proper burial. Gabriel, a professor, recognises their difficult peculiar and poor social skills of his brothers. He tries to alter the lifestyle, but after a series of unsuccessful efforts he has had enough and he abandon the house, leaving Elias behind.
While Gabriel is away the four brothers go out to find women and jobs, but it ends up in a series of mishaps. Gabriel notices strange animals around the island and remembers other animals he had seen in the house and goes back to investigate. At the house Gabriel opens a secret hatch which he had intended to look at since his arrival. He finds the preserved fetuses of many cross-species of farm animals and sees experimentation done on humans using stem cells and their father's research. The brothers come to the realization from the research notes that each of them is genetically part-animal and that their mothers were subjected to unethical experiments and fatal caesarean births.
In the end the five brothers stay together in the house. The final scene shows them surrounded by family and children, despite the fact that all the brothers, as hybrids, are sterile. It is hinted that the brothers have continued their father's work in order to have children.