The Swan

Little Peter Watson falls into the hands of two bigger boys with a rifle. First he is tied to a railway line, then the wings of a swan they have shot are strapped to his back and he is made to climb a tree and jump. The whole thing is told by a narrator, in the past tense. Wes Anderson directed, from Roald Dahl's story. Rupert Friend narrates. It is one of four Dahl shorts Anderson made in the same stretch. The others are The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Rat Catcher and Poison. The four were gathered into an 88-minute anthology released on Netflix on 15 March 2024. Robert Yeoman photographed them, and a cast including Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley and Richard Ayoade play multiple parts across all four. Netflix had bought the Roald Dahl Story Company in September 2021 for 686 million dollars. Photography began at The Maidstone Studios in Kent in January 2022. Anderson does not hide the adaptation here: the actors deliver the text straight to camera, the sets open and close like stage flats, and you never forget for a moment that a story is being told to you. Who it is for: viewers who like Dahl's dark side and Anderson's formal play. Who it is not for: anyone unsettled by cruelty to a child recounted this calmly. The more orderly the form, the harsher the event sits.