Birds (Or How to Be One)

In 414 B.C., Aristophanes wrote the comedy Ornithes, in which two men leave their birthplace in search of a better life. They arrive in the woodland of the birds and meet Hoopoe, the man who became a bird.

This Greek comedy is a contemplation, a voyage of discovery, an essay and perhaps even an indictment. The film mixes talking heads with theatre, street scenes and splendid panoramas. Based on the desire for freedom, but also the obstacles humanity imposes upon itself to find this freedom – walls around countries, social conventions, rules. Children play on swings to feel that tingling in their tummies, the evolutionary memory of flying through the air.

You can turn in any direction in the sky, states the man who doesn't want to walk anymore, but to fly. "Gravity is mortality", says another. In the meantime, the two men go in search of birdman Hoopoe.