GENRE: Satire/murder mystery

DIRECTOR: Leslie Megahey

SCREENPLAY: Leslie Megahey

PRODUCER: Michael Whearing et al for BBC Films and CIBY Productions with the participation of British Screen, Miramax Films and the European Co-Production Found.

MAIN CAST: Colin Firth [Richard Courtoise], Amina Annabi [Samira], Donald Pleasence [the Prosecutor], Ian Holm [Father Albertus], Nicol Williamson [the Monsigneur], Harriet Walters [Jeanine], Sally [The Pig]

ABOUT THE FILM: It's the 15th Century. Europe is changing.The Middle Ages are transcending into Renaissance. The young lawyer Richard Courtoise travels from Paris to the countryside in search of a simpler life. Instead he discovers that there is as much corruption and class prejudice in the villages as he had encountered in the city. Courtoise's failure to successfully defend a woman who is charged with being a witch is dispiriting enough... but then he finds himself defending a pig against the charge of murdering a young boy. When Courtoise finds there has been a rash of killings involving local Jewish children, he smells a rat. The subplots include Courtoise's tenuous relationship with the powerful local monsigneur; there is the priest who seduces the housewives that come to him for confession; there is the disillusioned, aging prosecuting attorney, who urges Courtoise to return to Paris; and also Courtoise's forbidden love for the Gypsy woman, the owner of the accused pig. Joe Henson, who bred the animal used in The Hour of the Pig, said after filming that the pig Sally was very "selective in her allegiances. She bit the actor who played the pig man, but she really took to actor Colin Firth." In quiet moments, she even slept on Firth's feet.[The Times, Januari 1994]

MY RATING:*** I like the dark humor, the bizzare touch and that it's so unpredictable. All the subplots gets a bit confusing at times though... When the film was released in England, the Sunday Times thought it was "Excellent, witty" and had some "fine performances" and Time Out found it "Slyly entertaining" and "refreshingly irrelevant" - and I agree!