Genre: Drama
Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes
By Andrea Arnold
By Andrea Arnold
With Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski, Nykiya Adams
Bird marks British director Andrea Arnold's return to the world of fiction, but adds a surprisingly delicate fantasy to the realism for which she is best known.
Three times winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival (for Red Road in 2006, Fish Tank in 2009 and American Honey in 2016), British director Andrea Arnold temporarily turned away from feature films to try her hand at series, with the second season of Big Little Lies (2018-2019), and documentaries, with Cow (2021).
Bird marks her return to the world of fiction, but adds a surprising, delicate fantasy to the realism for which she is known.
Synopsis
All audiences with warning
Bailey, 12, lives in a squat in Kent, England, with her half-brother Hunter, 17, and her very young father, Bug. Bug is busy preparing for his wedding to his new partner, but spends little time with his children.
Left to her own devices, Bailey takes a peculiar look at the world, capturing it in short films recorded on her smartphone.
It's the winged creatures that catch her eye most of all, from the tiniest ladybird to the most majestic birds.
Then a curious guardian angel, Bird, enters her life, a figure both real and unusual, who seems to have sprung straight from the teenager's imagination.
Through him, the film flirts with fairy tale, while remaining rooted in a harsh social context.
The delicate, melancholy poetry of the film, while not obscuring the violence of the environment, sets the tone apart from the filmmaker's previous works: the aesthetic remains essentially naturalistic, but the supernatural always seems to be close at hand.
This marvellous dimension is embodied by a disconcerting Franz Rogoswki, a strange, twirling, tender bird who appears from nowhere to accompany Bailey for a while on his journey towards adulthood.
Running time: 1 hour 58 minutes
By Andrea Arnold
By Andrea Arnold
With Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski, Nykiya Adams
Bird marks British director Andrea Arnold's return to the world of fiction, but adds a surprisingly delicate fantasy to the realism for which she is best known.
Three times winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival (for Red Road in 2006, Fish Tank in 2009 and American Honey in 2016), British director Andrea Arnold temporarily turned away from feature films to try her hand at series, with the second season of Big Little Lies (2018-2019), and documentaries, with Cow (2021).
Bird marks her return to the world of fiction, but adds a surprising, delicate fantasy to the realism for which she is known.
Synopsis
All audiences with warning
Bailey, 12, lives in a squat in Kent, England, with her half-brother Hunter, 17, and her very young father, Bug. Bug is busy preparing for his wedding to his new partner, but spends little time with his children.
Left to her own devices, Bailey takes a peculiar look at the world, capturing it in short films recorded on her smartphone.
It's the winged creatures that catch her eye most of all, from the tiniest ladybird to the most majestic birds.
Then a curious guardian angel, Bird, enters her life, a figure both real and unusual, who seems to have sprung straight from the teenager's imagination.
Through him, the film flirts with fairy tale, while remaining rooted in a harsh social context.
The delicate, melancholy poetry of the film, while not obscuring the violence of the environment, sets the tone apart from the filmmaker's previous works: the aesthetic remains essentially naturalistic, but the supernatural always seems to be close at hand.
This marvellous dimension is embodied by a disconcerting Franz Rogoswki, a strange, twirling, tender bird who appears from nowhere to accompany Bailey for a while on his journey towards adulthood.