The Painted Bird (Czech: Nabarvené ptáče, Ukrainian: «Пофарбоване пташеня», romanized: Pofarbovane ptashenia, Interslavic: Kolorovana ptica) is a 2019 Czech war drama film written, directed and produced by Václav Marhoul. An adaptation of Jerzy Kosiński's novel of the same name, it is the first film to feature the Interslavic language; Marhoul stated that he decided to use Interslavic so that no Slavic nation would nationally identify with the story. The Painted Bird was selected to play in competition at the 76th Venice International Film Festival and was chosen for 2019 Toronto International Film Festival as part of Special Presentations. The film also screened in the Dare strand at the 63rd BFI London Film Festival. It was selected as the Czech entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards making the December shortlist. Its brutal scenes led to walkouts from audiences at the Venice, Toronto and London film festivals. Nonetheless, the film has received very positive reviews from critics, with many likening it to films by Andrei Tarkovsky. At the 35th Warsaw International Film Festival, the audience honored the film with a long ovation after its only screening. It won Best Director at the Kolkata International Film Festival in 2019.
Plot In a war-torn part of German-occupied East Europe during the Second World War, a young boy lives with his elderly aunt. Startled at her death, the boy accidentally sets the house ablaze and leaves. His further adventures are a series of horrific encounters with ignorance, exploitation, and depravity. In the first village he reaches, an old healer buys him, but he is later blamed for bad luck and thrown in a river. He is next taken in by a miller and his wife. After the miller gouges out the eyes of a younger man seen exchanging glances with his wife, the boy runs off. He meets Lekh, a bird breeder who treats him well. Lekh has sex with a wild woman whom local village women later brutally rape with a bottle for also having sex with their teenage sons, after which Lekh hangs himself. The boy leaves. The boy finds a tame horse with a broken leg and takes it to the next village, where a villager kills it. Partisans ask the villagers to deliver him to the Germans, identifying him as a Jew. The German soldier tasked with executing the boy releases him. Later caught by SS guards who bring him to a local town, he is saved from execution. A local priest takes him in, but then arranges for him to lodge with a local man named Garbos, who proves to be a pedophile. The boy causes Garbos's gruesome death. After the well-meaning priest dies, his replacement has no use for the boy, and he is run out of the town. The boy is then taken in by Labina. When her elderly husband dies, she coaxes the boy into performing sexual acts on her, beating him when he fails to perform and mocking his inadequacy by simulating sex with a goat. He later retaliates by killing the goat and tossing its head through Labina's window before running away. The boy comes into contact with the Red Army. One of the Soviet officers, a sniper named Mitka, decides to take care of him temporarily. The boy watches Mitka kill several locals in reprisal for an attack on Russian soldiers. As the Russians decamp, they send the boy to an orphanage, where he is a loner and repeatedly tries to escape. He is beaten by a local anti-Semitic shopkeeper, whom he kills in revenge. A man named Nikodém comes to the orphanage, greets the boy tearfully as his son, and takes him home. The boy refuses to speak. Nikodém tries to explain why they sent him to his aunt and the boy protests angrily. He asks if he at least remembers his name, but the boy does not respond. Traveling by bus toward home, Nikodém falls asleep. His son notices a number tattooed on his father's arm and with his finger writes his name, Joska, on the bus window.
Cast
Production Václav Marhoul announced his intention to adapt Jerzy Kosiński's The Painted Bird in September 2012 when he secured rights for the story. Marhoul said that the film would have a budget of approximately 120 million CZK. He planned to secure finance during the following 2 years. The film received financial support of 15 million CZK from the Czech Film Fund in 2016. The film entered production in 2017. Marhoul decided to shoot the film in seven phases. First phase finished on 7 May 2017. Filmmakers were filming around Ukrainian village Svalovych from 23 March 2017 to 12 April 2017. Some reshoots had to be made from 21 to 23 April 2017 in Brdy Military area. Second phase started in South Slovakia on 5 June 2017 to 5 July 2017. The film crew was shooting around Váh river, at Mlynská Dolina and in Malý Dunajec. Shooting moved to Lipno Dam and Kvilda in February and March 2018. the crew had to deal with bad weather as they needed ice on the lake. Shooting concluded in July 2018 after 100 shooting days over 16 months. The film then entered post production. Post production concluded in February 2019. For the villagers' dialogue, Marhoul decided to use the Interslavic language instead of any ethnic Slavic language:
I didn't want the villagers (speaking) Ukrainian or Polish or Russian or something like that because those people (the villagers in the film) are really bad people. [...] I didn't want some nation to be associated with that.
Release
Theatrical The first trailer for the film was released on 28 July 2019. The film had its worldwide premiere at the 76th Venice International Film Festival on 3 September 2019. The film was first projected in Czech cinemas for journalists on 11 September 2019. It entered distribution for Czech cinemas on 12 September 2019. The film had been originally scheduled to be released in May 2019. IFC Films became the United States distributor in October 2019. The United States premiere was set for 10 July 2020. and the United Kingdom premiere was set for 27 March 2020.
Home media The film was released on home media in the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 29 April 2020.
Reception
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