General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

On Body and Soul

On Body and Soul (Hungarian: Testről és lélekről) is a 2017 Hungarian drama film written and directed by Ildikó Enyedi, in which two introverted slaughterhouse employees discover that they share the same nightly dream, in which they meet as deer in a snowy forest.¹^•² It won the Golden Bear, the top prize of the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.³^•⁴

Key fact	Detail
Original title	Testről és lélekről; Hungary, 2017, Hungarian language, 116 minutes¹
Director and writer	Ildikó Enyedi, her first feature after an 18-year gap¹^•⁵
Lead cast	Alexandra Borbély as Mária, Géza Morcsányi as Endre¹
Premise	Two co-workers learn through a workplace psychological evaluation that they dream the same dream nightly, meeting as deer in a snow-covered forest²
Berlin 2017	Golden Bear for Best Film, plus the FIPRESCI Prize, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, and Reader Jury of the Berliner Morgenpost³^•⁴
Later honors	Academy Award nominee, Best Foreign Language Film (2018); Sydney Film Prize 2017; 19 wins and 23 nominations in total⁴
Key crew	Cinematography Máté Herbai, music Ádám Balázs, editing Károly Szalai, production design Imola Láng; produced by Inforg-M&M Film Kft.¹

Spoilers

Plot

Endre, the director of a modern slaughterhouse in Budapest, and Mária, the new quality inspector sent by the controlling authorities, are reserved people who initially cannot stand each other. Mária is resented by co-workers for her exacting standards in grading beef carcasses, while Endre, a beloved supervisor, is withdrawn because of his partly paralyzed left hand.¹^•²

During routine company interviews, a workplace psychologist discovers that the two have the same recurring dream. Each night they meet in a peaceful, snow-covered forest as a stag and a doe who gently love each other. Embarrassed and frightened by the discovery, they compare dreams day after day, and after failed and humiliating attempts to build a relationship in waking life, they eventually find each other.²^•⁶

Enyedi described the design of the film as a contrast between two worlds: the dream world, airy, natural, and full of free-flowing emotion, and the everyday world of home, city, and workplace, shown in hyper-realist detail where survival feels tricky and carelessness brings immediate punishment or humiliation.⁶

Production and Enyedi's return

The film marked Ildikó Enyedi's return to feature filmmaking after 18 years; her previous feature, Simon, the Magician, had played festivals in 1999.¹^•⁵ Enyedi, born in Budapest, first gained international attention when her debut feature My 20th Century won the Caméra d'Or at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.¹

The film was made with support from the Hungarian National Film Fund and produced by Inforg-M&M Film Kft., with Mónika Mécs, András Muhi, and Ernő Mesterházy as producers.⁷^•¹ It had its world premiere in the Berlin competition, and was released nationwide in Hungary on 2 March, distributed by Mozinet.⁷

Awards

At the 67th Berlin International Film Festival the film won the Golden Bear for Best Film, and Enyedi also took the FIPRESCI Prize, the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, and the Reader Jury of the Berliner Morgenpost.³^•⁴ It went on to win the Sydney Film Prize in 2017, and IMDb records 19 wins and 23 nominations overall.⁴ In the European Film Awards, Alexandra Borbély won European Actress 2017, and the film was nominated for European Film, Director, and Screenwriter.⁶ At the 2018 Academy Awards it was Hungary's nominee and a finalist for Best Foreign Language Film.⁴^•⁸

Reception

Critical response was strongly positive. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 90% Tomatometer from 78 reviews and an 86% audience score; the critics consensus credits its tender performances and strong sense of style for an eccentric, dreamy portrait of love and loneliness. Metacritic records a Metascore of 77, with 9 of 10 surveyed reviews positive.⁹^•¹⁰ Reviewers singled out the graphic slaughterhouse scenes that open the film, the deadpan performances of the two leads, and the contrast between the cold industrial setting and the tender forest dream sequences.¹⁰^•¹¹ The film's music includes Laura Marling's fragile pop song "What He Wrote", used as Mária's "love music".¹¹

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026