Movie Review: The Painted Bird

Although The Painted Bird is only director Vaclav Marhoul’s third film (his previous works include Smart Phillip [2003] and Tobruk [2008]), it is, in short, an epic masterpiece of cinematic accomplishment.

In an effort to spare their child the horrors of the Holocaust, a Jewish couple send their son Joska (Petr Kotlár) to live out the war in safety with a relative somewhere in the Eastern European countryside. But, when the child’s guardian unexpectedly dies, the now homeless boy is forced take to the open road and endure a hostile world now governed by hate, fear, and violence. Struggling for survival, he journeys through a world besot by locals and villagers driven by prejudice, superstition, and their own rules. But, when the war ends, his fight for survival may just become one for his soul as well as his life.

Based on Jerzy Kosiński’s 1965 novel, Marhoul’s script is an ambitious and remarkable narrative behemoth that, although clocking in at 169 minutes, never feels like a slog except when it intends to (such as when illustrating the endless suffering caused by war and the far-reaching scars it leaves in its wake). There’s a logic and an economical approach that Marhoul approaches the story with that, along with the exquisite work of cinematographer Vladimír Smutný and remarkable production design by Jan Vlasák, the gives the film the bravado it earns throughout. Ludek Hudec’s editing also serves to give the entire enterprise an aesthetic cohesiveness that never waivers.

The story is told through the use of nine chapter headings that give the film’s linear timeline a punishing narrative structure. Littered throughout are a plethora of noteworthy performances from actors like: Udo Kier, Stellan Skarsgård, Harvey Keitel, Julian Sands, Júlia Valentová Vidrnáková, Aleksey Kravchenko, Barry Pepper, and Petr Vaněk. All seen as they interact with young Joska as he is thrust from one chaotic life moment to the next.

Petr Kotlár in “The Painted Bird.”

Although the punishing subject matter of the film, not to mention the brutal reality with which it is conveyed, might make for rather uncomfortable viewing for some, the imagery and performances are so compelling it is impossible to look away, let alone forget any of it once it is all concluded. In this way, the audience is put through the same mental trials and tribulations as Joska, at least to a certain extent.

In essence, writer/director Vaclav Marhoul’s The Painted Bird is arguably one of the most beautiful and important anti-war films to have ever been made and is easily worth the time investment required to experience it.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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