Catch a bird, paint its wings a different color, and put it back into the flock. The bird will be attacked by its own kind until it dies... This is a scene in the film...
A cute little boy with big eyes, if placed in a peaceful age, he would surely be regarded as an angel sent by God. He can be full of love, and his bright eyes will surely see the beauty of this world with joy and innocence.
But the film gave him the most cruel blow at the beginning --- the little boy hugged a small animal and fled desperately, and was finally caught up by other children. They poured oil on the little animal, set it on fire, and watched it scream and struggle in circles.
The little boy who was knocked to the ground could only watch helplessly as the small animals were burned to charcoal.
During the war, in order to avoid the Nazi Holocaust, the little boy was sent by his parents to a remote village to live a simple life with an old grandmother named Marta.
Unexpectedly, the sudden death of the old grandmother made the little boy homeless. The villagers thought he was an ominous man, a devil, a vampire.
The witch took him in, and then a plague broke out in the village, and the little boy was also infected. The witch "planted" him in the ground with only one head exposed. The crows gathered in flocks and pecked at him with their sharp beaks. He could only drive away the crows by roaring, but with little success, he was pecked to the brink of blood.
However, he never imagined that this would turn out to be the lightest time in his tumultuous career...
After being dug out of the ground and driven into the river, he could only float with a log in his arms. He was rescued by a hired hand. The mistress was kind to the clothes he gave to his deceased child.
The host was jealous of the relationship between the hostess and the employee, and beat and scolded the woman. The little boy watched him use a spoon to goug out the employee's eyes (it was too heavy, so he wouldn't put his eyes on it).
The little boy left, all he could do was pick up his eyes and return them to the hired hand.
He came to the house of an old man named "Like" and witnessed the process of being pecked to death by the same kind of birds that had been painted. Laike's girlfriend, Ludmila, was beaten to death by a group of women because she was considered a slut for seducing teenagers in the village.
Laike also chose to hang himself
The little boy has set foot on the road of exile again. When Lu met a horse that was abandoned because of injury, he would comfort it and take it away. At this moment, his eyes are still full of kindness.
Passing another village, the horse was killed in his presence
He was bound, beaten, and delivered to the Germans. He saw Jews being slaughtered and raped. He was also almost dead.
The kind old priest rescued him, but the priest, whose health was deteriorating, could only send the little boy to the Garbos home.
Garbos, who appears to be kind on the surface, is actually a beast. He molested the little boy every night and kept him from acting strangely in front of others. If there is a slight difference, it is a brutal beating.
The unbearable little boy finally lured him into a pothole full of mice and rescued himself in revenge.
Came to the home of "Labina" on a cold snowy day. At night, the elderly farmer was sexually abused to death by her.
The farmer was hastily buried, and the little boy became the object of Rabina's adultery. But she was not satisfied, even the rams in the sheepfold were not spared.
The little boy continued his wandering, he gradually grew from a timid little boy to a teenager. Those once agile eyes gradually lost their light and became gloomy and indifferent. He had already become the smeared bird.
On the brink of war, there is no battlefield, and there is no smoke of gunpowder confronting the two armies. But it makes people see a more cruel side than the battlefield. Rather than saying that the little boy is a demon who brought disaster, it is better to say that he is a witness to the miserable world under Nazi rule through his eyes and experience.
The world is colorless, filled with death and despair. There are very few lines in the whole film, the atmosphere is a bit depressing, and the black and white pictures weaken the filth such as blood and feces. Selfishness, desire, bullying... these no longer need words to explain. It seems that there is no difference between humans and animals and birds. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Polish Jew Jerzy Kosinski. The story stems from the author's childhood experiences traveling long distances during the Holocaust. The film was released at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 and was nominated for the 76th Golden Lion and the 24th Golden Satellite.
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