Delta (2008)

69% of critics liked it
(29 reviews)
48% of users liked it
(290 ratings)

Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo (Johanna) helmed this bucolic incest-themed drama. The picture reflects on man's need to re-bond with his natural habitat, and meditates on the unseemly consequences of fraternal love that drifts into unacceptable territory. Felix Lajko stars as the unnamed… More Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo (Johanna) helmed this bucolic incest-themed drama. The picture reflects on man's need to re-bond with his natural habitat, and meditates on the unseemly consequences of fraternal love that drifts into unacceptable territory. Felix Lajko stars as the unnamed protagonist, who hearkens back to his family's agrarian home after years away. Unkempt, unshaven and noticeably laconic, he makes contact with his sister (Orsi Toth of Johanna), his mother (Lili Monori) and his mother's recent husband, a brutish sociopath (Sandor Gaspar) - who uniformly toil away in a decrepit local pub. In time, the lead character and his sister move into their deceased father's abandoned property, set about constructing a house and a pier, and consummate an extremely intimate relationship as they begin to experience a more deep-seated and harmonious relationship with the natural world around them. When the others find out, however, they react in utter horror, shunning and ridiculing the couple and driving the story to a heartbreaking conclusion. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 50 min.
Directed By: Kornél Mundruczó
Written By: Kornél Mundruczó
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Apr 1, 2009 Wide
Studio: Facets Multimedia

Critic Reviews

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail
For all its lofty thematic intentions, this thing has precious little to say.
Eddie Cockrell, Variety
A beautifully atmospheric vessel that will seem infinitely deep to some and chafingly dry to others.
Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter
Unreal characters and story shackle this gloomy tale of unconventional love between a long-lost brother and sister.
A.O. Scott, New York Times
Delta is a Hungarian film that rigorously upholds the conventions of the festival art film genre.
Chris Cabin, Filmcritic.com
quiet and acute, but its central relationship suggests sublime lunacy that is never realized.
Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru
Quietly moving, well-nuanced, lyrical and breathtaking to behold.
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
Having played in competition at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Korneo Mundruczo's plaintive contemplation of the deceptive duality between natural beauty and nature's immutable laws--as both broken and inflicted--"Delta" is an art house film of the first
David Fear, Time Out New York
Mundruczó works this stock tale into a deliberately paced parable of desire and dread.
Joseph Jon Lanthier, Slant Magazine
A putatively humanistic film that succeeds more indelibly as a mythic image-poem.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
A gloomy fable about Eastern European misery and incest along the Danube, that's semi-interesting without being interesting.
Donald J. Levit, ReelTalk Movie Reviews
Despite home front deprivation, films like 'Delta' give evidence of Budapest's reserve of talent and promise.
Liz Braun, Jam! Movies
Thanks to cinematographer Matyas Erdely, it's so beautiful to look at that the experience is more like walking through a gallery than watching a film.
Edward Porter, Times [UK]
Strikingly shot though it is, this Hungarian film, by Kornel Mundruczo, is sunk by a drama that represents art-house cinema at its worst: a dull, gloomy tale that skirts questions of plausibility.
Philip French, Observer [UK]
Menace escalates to rape and then murder. It's like a solemn, slow-motion version of Straw Dogs with the wrong side winning.
Nicholas Barber, Independent on Sunday
Slow, laconic Hungarian art-house fare, featuring rape, pig slaughter, and a symbolic tortoise.
David Jenkins, Time Out
Mundruczó generates a moderate amount of intrigue from the build-up but stubbornly resists handling his themes in any direct and digestible fashion.
Jon Fortgang, Film4
Don't expect to come away a whole lot wiser, but for its duration this film is mesmerising, mysterious and startlingly beautiful.
James Christopher, Times [UK]
Delta is a weird, eerie, and utterly compelling Hungarian gem. A lugubrious piece of genius.
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
The movie is lovely looking, but frankly a little specious and shallow.
Matt Bochenski, Little White Lies
Mundruczó's first instinct is aesthetic rather than emotive. But if that strips the film of a measure of moral authority, it only adds to the feeling of hollow nihilism that stays with you long after the closing credits.