The Painted Bird

The deeply dramatic story about the immediate relationship between horror and cruelty, awarded nine Czech Lions. Opus by Václav Marhoul based on the book by Jerzy Kosiński.

The Painted Bird
Czechia, Slovakia, Ukraine 2019
  • Czech
169 min.
Accessible
  • This film is available until 31. 7. 2025 in these territories: Czechia, Slovakia.
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About

In his first novel of the same name, set somewhere in Eastern Poland during World War II, Jerzy Kosiński tells an extremely bleak tale, in which, without emotion and seemingly without ethical restraint, he applies the themes of violence, torture and the degradation of man as actions that know no bounds. The director didn’t recoil at the controversy the novel incites to this day, transferring every part of the savagery to the screen, where he heightens it further with a black-and-white lens. The result is a physical film which makes for increasingly agonising viewing as we follow the young protagonist who passes through this hell, both as an observer and repeatedly as a victim. And it is this ice-cold rendering that paradoxically gives the film potency as a passionate cry against the insanity of war.

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Credits
Director: Václav Marhoul
Based on: Jerzy Kosiński
Screenplay: Václav Marhoul
Cinematography: Vladimír Smutný
Sound: Pavel Rejholec, Jakub Čech
Editing: Luděk Hudec
Production Design: Jan Vlasák
Producer: Václav Marhoul
Costumes: Helena Rovná
Cast: Petr Kotlár, Nina Shunevich, Alla Sokolova, Udo Kier, Michaela Doležalová, Zdeněk Pecha, Lech Dyblik, Jitka Čvančarová, Stellan Skarsgård, Harvey Keitel, Julian Sands, Júlia Valentová, Alexander Kravchenko, Petr Vaněk
Awards

Venice Film Festival

2019 – Václav Marhoul (UNICEF Award)

Czech Film Critic Awards

2019 – Vladimír Smutný (Best Audiovisual Work)

Czech Lions

2019 – Václav Marhoul (Best Film)

Czech Lions

2019 – Václav Marhoul (Best Director)

Czech Lions

2019 – Vladimír Smutný (Best Cinematography)

Czech Lions

2019 – Luděk Hudec (Best Editing)

Czech Lions

2019 – Pavel Rejholec (Best Sound)

Czech Lions

2019 – Jan Vlasák (Best Art Direction)

Czech Lions

2019 – Helena Rovná (Best Costumes)

Czech Lions

2019 – Ivo Strangmüller (Best Make-up)

Czech Lions

2019 – Václav Marhoul (Best Audio-Visual Achievement)

Links
  • This film is available until 31. 7. 2025 in these territories: Czechia, Slovakia.