The Melancholic Chicken

A rather tortured rural tragedy that starts promisingly. A boy is born to a hilltop farmer and his lovely new bride. But, just as his chickens are attacked by an unwelcome bird of prey, so she is killed in a lightning storms. Her sister tries to fill her shoes, but is regarded as some sort of ogre by father and son, and she makes way for a lusty local barmaid with little patience for the boy, who brings out the worst in her new husband. It's impassioned stuff, but the characterisation's all over the place, and the lower and meaner the players fall, the more shrill and alienating the film becomes. Thumbs up to the stunt chicken in the finale, though.