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Original name: The Painted Bird
English name: The Painted Bird
Year:2019
Run time: 169’
Language: Slavic Esperanto, Czech, Russian, German
Type (Colour/ Black & white): Black and White
Country: Czech republic, Ukraine, Slovakia
Director: Vaclav Marhoul
Producers: : Aleksandr Kushaev, Vaclav Marhoul
Cast: Petr Kotlár, Udo Kier, Lech Dyblik, Jitka Čvančarová, Stellan Skarsgård, Harvey Keitel, Julian Sands
Screenplay: Jerzy Kosinski, Vaclav Marhoul
Cinematographer: Vladimir Smutny
Editor: Ludek Hudec
Sound Designer: Pavel Rejholec
Costume Designer: Helena Rovna
Production Designer: Jan Vlasak
Production Company: Silver Screen
World Sales: Celluloid Dreams
World Sales Phone: +33 1 49 70 03 70
World Sales Email: info@celluloid-dreams.com
Václav Marhoul was born in Prague. He graduated from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague specialising in production, and worked successively for Czech Television, Short Film, and AB Barrandov Film Studios first as Assistant Producer and later from 1990 to 1997 as the General Director. He established his own company focusing on the creation of feature films and organising theatre and visual arts events. He has directed feature films Smart Philip (2003) and Tobruk (2008). The Painted Bird (2019) is his latest feature.
Based on the acclaimed Jerzy Kozinski novel, The Painted Bird is a meticulous 35mm black and white evocation of wild, primitive Eastern Europe at the bloody close of World War II. The film follows the journey of The Boy, entrusted by his persecuted parents to an elderly foster mother. The old woman soon dies and the Boy is on his own, wandering through the country-side, from village to farmhouse. As he struggles for survival, The Boy suffers through extraordinary brutality meted out by the ignorant, superstitious peasants and he witnesses the terrifying violence of the efficient, ruthless soldiers, both Russian and German. When the war ends, The Boy has been changed, forever.
