20th Anniversary Edition – Core Programme

PÁJAROS

Birds Flying East
Ciné Lumière I

UK premiere

£15, conc. £13

Followed by a Q&A with the director and Fosca Films’ producer David Ciurana

dir. Pau Durà
with Javier Gutiérrez, Luis Zahera, Teresa Saponangelo

Spain/Romania | 2024 | 100 min | cert. 15
In Spanish, Italian, Catalan, Hungarian and Romanian with English subtitles

Colombo works at a parking lot and tops up his meager wages by selling weed. Mario is a lawyer and a keen birdwatcher whom, due to a past accident, is unable to drive. Mario offers to pay Colombo to drive him from Valencia to a lake in Spain’s Costa Brava, where he wants to see some cranes. Upon reaching the lake, Mario tells Colombo that the birds have changed their migratory route and are now going to nest in the Danube delta in Constanza, Romania… Much more than a trans-European road movie blending comedy and drama, Pájaros is about two men who are lost but who get to know and to help themselves and each other along the way. The performances by Gutiérrez and Zahera as perfectly flawed anti-heroes attempting to escape their lives are simply wonderful.