Birds, Orphans and Fools

Juraj Jakubisko's 1969 Slovak film follows two young men and a young woman, all of whom lost their families in the war, who decide to live like children in a ruined church. The three refuse to accept reality and madness becomes a form of defence for them, but the game cannot be sustained. Jakubisko's visual language was unusual even within the Czechoslovak cinema of the period: wide lenses, abrupt shifts of colour, carnival imagery. The film was shot immediately after the 1968 invasion and shelved during normalisation; it went unseen for years. It is now counted among the most original works of Slovak cinema. Its rhythm is uneven and parts of it are scattered. Who it's for: viewers interested in the Czechoslovak new wave and formally free-ranging films. Who it's not for: anyone wanting orderly narrative, or avoiding content involving violence and suicide.