Taxi to the Dark Side

Sometimes I just do not understand the inner workings of international film distribution. I get that in some countries no distributor can see an audience for certain films, which can mean they get left behind and forgotten at film festivals and never even receive a DVD release. I get that some movies are hard sells and that they can take time to develop a good and sound marketing campaign, which can be why some movies arrive months after being snapped up. I also understand that there are so many different parties involved these days that it can be hard to know where a film is going and what it is doing.

However, there are things that just continue to baffle me, like how some movies can take over three years to receive a release. György Pálfi's gross out (and I use that term lightly) ode to freaks Taxidermia is being released in America tomorrow. I've reviewed the film before and said:

Taxidermia is bloody and brutal, it doesn't shy away from showing the audience images that it knows will find sickening, but as I've said, it doesn't show these things merely to gross an audience out (well, maybe a little). I really think it is showing a story of these three people. Stories that just happen to involve bestiality, self-mutilation, murderous felines, embryo modelling, children with curly pig tails and a scene involving caviar that will make someone with the most seasoned food palate squirm in their seat at the sight of it.

I actually liked the movie. It is disgusting, and offensive, and sickening and truly vile - other things in the film include flame-throwing penises, forced vomitting and, well, taxidermy. It is not for the weak-hearted. And yet it is surreal and quite charming in its odd sort of way.


Having said that, I saw it. I saw it nearly two years ago when it was released on DVD in 2007. It's release goes back even further though, as it first screened at Cannes a whole year earlier in 2006.

Like I said, I can understand how a film such as Taxidermia could slip through the cracks of international distribution. It is not a film that a buyer would see and say "we could make money from that!" And yet here it is, three whole years later, and it is only now receiving an American release? Here Media and Regent Releasing are the team behind it they've even given the film a proper website (a courtesy not even many new release Australian films get) and a truly fantastic poster (below).


Some wonders just never cease, I suppose.