What the Hen? Review by Saba Osanadze

“What the… Hen?” – Art, Protest, and the Power of Absurdity

An absurd protest turned tender portrait of resilience.

 By Saba Osanadze

Joanna Deja’s What the… Hen? is the kind of small, eccentric documentary that sneaks up on you with surprising emotional weight. What begins as an odd story about two people building a gigantic wooden hen slowly unfolds into a moving meditation on creation, companionship, and the stubborn resilience of art in times of despair. At seventy-three brisk minutes, the film finds poetry in protest, and humanity in the act of building something utterly, gloriously useless.

              Set against the backdrop of war-torn Europe, the film follows an artist (Łukasz Puczko) and his younger Ukrainian assistant (Sabina Bohynska) as they construct a monumental puppet – a hen. What might sound like a whimsical project quickly gains symbolic force: the hen, in their view, represents both fertility and fragility, a living creature transformed into a silent monument. As they drag this massive, ungainly bird across borders, performing puppet shows and impromptu street performances, the absurdity becomes a language of resistance.

              Deja’s camera never mocks her subjects. Instead, she observes them with patient empathy, allowing their strange vision to breathe. The cinematography captures the raw beauty of decay — abandoned factories, broken fences, and foggy fields where the wooden hen seems to come alive like a ghostly myth. The editing maintains a delicate rhythm between stillness and movement, letting the viewer feel both the weight of the sculpture and the lightness of the performances that follow it.

              The real strength of What the… Hen? lies however in its relationship dynamic. Lukasz and Sabina begin as uneasy collaborators. One a disillusioned artist haunted by political despair, the other a shy apprentice looking for a new world after she fled the war in Ukraine. Over time, their bond deepens, becoming the film’s emotional spine.

              Deja subtly weaves the war’s presence into the film without ever turning it into a didactic statement. Sirens, checkpoints, and off-screen news clips serve as reminders that creation here is an act of defiance. The absurd hen becomes a metaphor for freedom — fragile, perhaps, but impossible to silence. The title itself captures both disbelief and affection, as if even Deja can’t quite believe the magic that unfolds in front of her lens.

              When Lukasz and Sabina carry their wooden bird into a square for one final performance, the laughter that greets them feels both joyous and tragic. Deja doesn’t offer closure, only continuity — the idea that art, even in its most ridiculous form, insists on existing.

In an era crowded with documentaries chasing headlines, What the… Hen? stands apart for its sincerity. It’s a film about art as resistance, absurdity as salvation, and friendship as the most fragile yet enduring sculpture of all.

Director: Joanna Deja
Writer: Joanna Deja
Cast: Łukasz Puczko, Sabina Bohynska
Running Time: 76 min.
Country: Poland
Year: 2025

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