Cinema
Birds, Orphans and Fools
Vtáčkovia, siroty a blázni
Juraj Jakubisko · 1969
Synopsis
In a devastated city, at a time and place the film does not specify, three orphans, Yorick, the young Marta and the photographer Andrej, live together with birds in a ruined building. To survive a violent and cynical world, they adopt a child's outlook and a philosophy of joy, and choose to pass for madmen. Yorick and Marta soon become a couple, while Andrej struggles to get close to her; Yorick is later arrested and spends a year in prison, during which the other two grow close.
Context
Karol Sidon wrote the screenplay with the director; the cinematography is by Igor Luther, the music by Zdeněk Liška, and Magda Vášáryová, Jiří Sýkora and the Frenchman Philippe Avron play the three roles. Co-produced with the Paris company Como Film, the film was shot in Bratislava, Piešťany and Bradlo, in 1968 according to the director. A special commission for Slovak cinema reproached it for a non-socialist, despairing and negative content, and it stayed in the vault for some twenty years, until its presentation at the Karlovy Vary festival in 1990.
Who it is for
Under an hour and a half; a series of free, surreal and grotesque scenes, rather than a continuous story.
Prizes and reception
Golden Siren at Sorrento in 1969, together with its author's first two films; acclaimed when it was rediscovered in 1990.