Filmed in stunning Black and White and with minimal dialogue, the cinematography is both epic and intimate, evocative of the Soviet era classics like Andrei Tarkovsky’s Ivan’s Childhood (1962) and Elem Klimov’s Come and See (1985).
The unnamed nine or ten-year-old boy is sent away by his parents to a remote medieval farmhouse in the countryside to live with an old woman and escape persecution during the Nazi occupation. People in these isolated areas of Europe still lived primitively without electricity or running water, lending itself to beautifully stark pastoral landscapes of vast barren windswept fields dotted with livestock or a toiling farmer.
While waiting for his parents to return for him the old woman dies unexpectedly. Unable to wait any longer without a guardian to care for him, the boy begins a long grueling journey from hamlet to village across war-torn Eastern Europe to discover just how dangerous and cruel the world really is for a child who looks like him.
The film is divided in sections named after the people who shelter him for a time until he escapes from the abuse and exploitation he experiences at their hands. Everywhere he goes people are afraid he will bring bad luck and treat him like a demon or evil spirit often mistaking him for a gypsy because of his black colored eyes and dark Slavic complexion.
The theme of the film and the meaning of the title as shown in the film is given by a bird catcher who shows the boy that when a bird’s feathers are painted and the bird is released to return to its flock, it will not be accepted by the flock. The painted bird will be attacked and pecked to death simply because it looks different and is perceived as an imposter, an outsider just like the Jewish boy is attacked by people because of his appearance.
The story is relentlessly brutal and full of depraved cultural prejudices and customs folks practiced at the time. The boy is subjected and exposed to every kind of ill treatment imaginable by the peasants he meets. He survives only on the fringes of society with social outcasts like himself.
What stands out is the film’s use of beautiful compositions and lighting to tell a harrowing story with almost no dialogue. Images of close up facial expressions make a powerful emotional connection with the audience. The action is deftly conveyed through economical use of montage sequence editing.
The film revolves around the brilliant performance by Petr Kotlar a non-professional actor playing the young boy who is mesmerizing and keeps us transfixed by his every move. There are some surprisingly big-name cameo performances throughout by Udo Kier, Stellan Skarsgard, Harvey Keitel, Julian Sands, and Barry Pepper.
The Painted Bird is an exquisite must-see arthouse film but not for the faint of heart. Aside from the compelling story telling techniques employed, the images are striking in their visceral beauty and shocking in their raw cruelty and horror.
The Painted Bird was the Czech Republic’s official Oscar entry and was shortlisted for the 2019 Academy Award season winning much critical praise around the world for its raw honest portrayal of not only war atrocities but also man’s baser instincts. It was recently part of the European Union Film Festival.
JP
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