THE PAINTED BIRD

Somewhere in Eastern Europe, during the Second World War: a Jewish boy (Petr Kotlár) has been placed with an old woman in the countryside by his persecuted parents. When she dies, he is left alone and moves from village to village, from farm to farm. What he encounters there is a succession of cruelties: superstition, exploitation, violence from farmers, soldiers and clergymen, occasionally broken by moments of kindness that never last long. The boy learns to survive, and the price is one piece of his childhood after another. “The Painted Bird” (Czech Republic, 2019) by Václav Marhoul adapts Jerzy Kosiński’s 1965 novel.

Marhoul worked on the project for over eleven years. The film is shot in black and white, runs 170 minutes, and is the first to be spoken in Interslavic – a constructed language that ties the setting to no single country; Czech, Russian and German are also spoken. In competition at the Venice Film Festival 2019 it received the UNICEF Award. “The Painted Bird” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2019.

Shown at the 2019 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2019 · Film Archive