Boldly blending sex, religion, and faith
, The Ornithologist blurs the lines between spirituality and sexuality with recklessness and passion, and with a fantasy-like game feel that is both obscure and engaging
. Director João Pedro Rodrigues explores the relationship between nature and reality, religion and the flesh, and the tension between them
. Although the whole film is full of mystery, and like the director's other works, the plot changes from scene to scene, but "The Ornithologist" may be the director's most traditional way of telling. In this film, the saint is not an abstract existence. The director uses a dreamy way to show the whole process of breaking away from the flesh and becoming a saint
, and finally conveys the director's personal point of view-religion is not static , but is constantly absorbing different cultures and developing the essence of these cultures into their own cornerstones
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The first 20 minutes of the film feature a semi-documentary view of the bird watching of a The Ornithologist named Fernando, alternating between the stillness of the bird and the movement of the human, as the way photographer Rui Poças captures these shots shows that , not only Fernando is watching the birds, these birds are watching Fernando too, showing a sense of equality and interaction
. And Fernando's observation of this act itself constitutes a sense of ritual, showing his worship of birds and the spirit of nature
. In addition, Severine Ballon's piercing soundtrack also hints at Fernando's life and identity changes
. As the plot gradually becomes surreal, the interaction between nature and people also begins to be allegorical. There are many places in the film worth pondering, and the story of the film takes place in the wild, which also provides the audience with a broad and open environment for thinking.
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