This afternoon, the smog covered the city. Hiding at home and watching the Czech movie The Painted Bird. This work is adapted from the novel of the same name, which the author Jerzy Kosinski gained fame for.
The no-nonsense black-and-white film was nominated for the Golden Lion at last year's Berlin Film Festival. It tells a series of experiences of Eastern European teenagers before, during and after World War II. The style of the images is sharp, solemn, yet romantic, which reminds people of the deepness in Tarkovsky's works.
"Smeared Bird" is more than deep. It presents a series of human evils that are both brutal and familiar. Not every event occurred under extreme circumstances. After reading some film reviews, they are all talking about the relationship between the war and the protagonist. In my opinion, the war might just be the background. In addition to war, the film also touches on race, religion, famine, sex, kinship, and the relationship between humans and animals. Without exception, the plot arranges them all to be resolved violently—violence is undoubtedly the ugliest. In the middle of the violence, interspersed with desolate mountains, lakes and rivers, wheat fields, country lanes and endless nights. These natural landscapes seem to be beautiful. They are indistinct and sparse, and they become the endings or starting points of tragedies.
Whenever I judge the tragic history of Europeans as a Chinese, I often worry about whether I am biased. Or, not in his place, have a say? Did the blind touch the elephant?
In this film, Czechs, Jews, Russians, Germans, and Cossacks all appear. The relationship between characters, no matter how they are positioned, is not unfamiliar in my daily experience. A look, an action, sends the exact same signal. There is no difference between cruelty and mercy. On the contrary, if each of us feels that we or our profession, identity, race, beliefs are unique and completely incomprehensible to others, then there is no possibility of communication between people. Such a shocking film, no one is qualified to judge.
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