Man Follows Birds

Roberto the Canary

February 2019 •French

The death of Roberto, the canary, forces a family to come to terms with their own grief.

Kes

April 1970 •English

Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.

Birdman of Alcatraz

July 1962 •English

After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.

Sweet Mud

September 2006 •Hebrew

Set in mid-70's, 12-year old Dvir Avni navigates between the equality values of his home-born Kibbutz and the relationship with his undermined mother, whom the Kibbutz members will to denounce.

Breathless Synphony

Invalid date •English

Running away form his afflictions, Oscar lives isolated with his little bird, Pituco

The Starling

September 2021 •English

A woman adjusting to life after a loss contends with a feisty bird that's taken over her garden — and a husband who's struggling to find a way forward.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

October 1973 •English

Jonathan is sick and tired of the boring life in his seagull clan. He rather experiments with new, always more daring flying techniques. Since he doesn't fit in, the elders expel him from the clan. So he sets out to discover the world beyond the horizon in a quest for wisdom.

Tawny Pipit

April 1944 •English

Jimmy Bancroft, a fighter pilot, who is recovering from injuries sustained during the Battle of Britain, and Hazel Court, a nurse, come across a pair of rare birds nestling in a field. After a run in with the army, and a couple of thieves, they, with the cooperation of the village people and the Ornithology Society, help the eggs to hatch. A wonderful look at life in a small village, during World War II.

Birds Are Singing in Kigali

September 2017 •Polish

We meet ornithologist Anna in 1994 just as genocide is raging in Rwanda, perpetrated by the majority Hutus against the Tutsis. Anna manages to save the daughter of a colleague whose family has been murdered, and she takes her to Poland. But the woman returns to Rwanda to visit the graves of her loved ones. The director originally worked on the movie with her husband Krzysztof Krauze (My Nikifor – Crystal Globe, KVIFF 2005), but after his death in 2014 she eventually finished this challenging picture alone.

No Man Is An Island

July 2014 •English

The Holy Innocents

April 1984 •Spanish

Somewhere in the spanish country, in the 60s. Paco and his wife Régula are very poor. They work as tenant farmers for a very wealthy landowner. They have 3 children. One is backward. The others can not got to school because the master "needs" their work. When Regula's brother is fired from where he has worked for 61 years, he settles down at their little place... An attack against the archaism of the spanish country of the 60s.

What Is That?

September 2007 •Greek

Father and son are sitting on a bench. Suddenly a sparrow lands across them...

Storm Boy

January 2019 •English

Storm Boy lives a lonely life with his reclusive father on a desolate coastline, but when he forms a close bond with a pelican, Mr. Percival, his life takes a new and unexpected turn.

The Blue Bird

March 1918 •English

Peasant children Mytyl and Tyltyl are led on a magical quest for the fabulous Blue Bird of Happiness by the fairy Berylune. On their journey, they're accompanied by the anthropomorphized presences of a Dog, a Cat, Light, Fire, and Bread, among other entities.

Kauwboy

April 2012 •Dutch

A lively young boy befriends and attempts to raise an abandoned baby jackdaw unbeknownst to his choleric and disapproving father.

Stilt

September 2012 •Chinese

On the surface, Min is a man who lives a dream life. He has great looks, a job he is passionate about at the Taipei wild bird conservatory and a loving wife. However, the expert of the Black-winged Stilt harbours dark storms within. There is daily growing tension between him and his wife over family planning. He and his brother, who were once in good terms, have been cold-shouldering each other for years. Last is the past he left behind to soar to where he is. All tension is released and mayhem unleashed when a crisis brings him back to his old home Yun-Ling, the town he came from. Meanwhile, oblivious to the life of the man who studies them, the migratory Stilts continue their annual ritual. Hidden with their feathery actions is a message of love waiting for Min and his family to uncover.

The Ornithologist

September 2016 •Portuguese

Stranded along a sublime river fjord in northern Portugal, an ornithologist is subjected to a series of brutal and erotic Stations-of-the-Cross-style tests.

Afternoon (The Gun)

January 1968 •

On a hot summer afternoon in a city courtyard, a young man amuses himself by aiming air guns at random targets. The film examines the roots and manifestations of Evil, which will become the director’s permanent concern.

Bird

September 2015 •English

A young boy accidentally squeezes his pet bird to death. At sunset the bird resurrects itself and confronts the boy with his actions.

Winged Seduction: Birds of Paradise

November 2012 •English

Tim Laman a photographer for National Geographic and ornithologist Ed Scholes have been traveling to some of the most remote jungles the world has to offer in search of observing and photographing all 39 species of tropical bird. This particular group of birds are entitled as the “Birds of Paradise” and can be found in some of the last truly wild locations of New Guinea.