FEATHERS

A mother with no name runs a household in which the father decides everything: the money, the words, the silence. For their son’s fourth birthday, a magician is booked. He makes the father of the family disappear in a box – and pulls out a chicken instead. The man does not come back. What began as a trick becomes a situation in which the woman suddenly has to make her own decisions: she keeps the bird in the house, searches for the magician, for money, for work, and for the first time moves through a world that had no place for her, on her own account. “Feathers” by Omar El Zohairy, Egypt 2021, is a fable with no fixed place and no fixed time.

El Zohairy tells the story in static shots, in washed-out colours, with a dry, absurd humour that never conceals the cruelty. Critics called it a black comedy that unsettles through its calm. It premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2021, where “Feathers” became the first Egyptian film ever to win the section’s top prize. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2021 in the Berlinale World Cinema Fund section.

Shown at the 2021 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2021 · Film Archive