Jason Sondhi
Birdboy is that rare film that utterly transfixed me from start to finish, marrying great graphic style with provocative plot developments. It mines that still-rich territory of upsetting established narratives, wrongfooting the viewer into thinking they are watching one type of film, when truly the directing team of Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero have something else in mind altogether.
Populated by cute anthropomorphic animals, the bright colors and sunny dispositions of its characters sets up at first blush a rather traditional tale. We first see Birdboy in a tree, being coached by small helpful avians in learning how to fly. His classmate walks under the tree with her father toward school and teases Birdboy gently—equal parts mocking and affection. She’ll learn not tease, he’ll learn to fly, and a gentle romance will bloom, correct?
Emphatically no!, as the very next scene indicates. Instead Birdboy opts for the Pan’s Labyrinth route, taking its fable elements in a darker direction, exploring mature themes of repression, authoritarian control and addiction. It imagines a deconstructed fairy tale where villains are as horrifyingly villainous as they are in reality, and how life for an adolescent robbed of family, friendship and basic dignity can be far from heroic.
The backdrop of Birdboy is vague, and rightfully so with only 12 minutes to tell its story. While aspects are undoubtedly bizarre, they don’t feel needlessly cryptic, simply evocative a rich world that we only are able to glimpse pieces of. It is cliche to say “this should be a feature!”, but the extent to which Birdboy enticed me, and scope of a world and politics therein that are only hinted at, I would say an expansion is very much in order.
That expansion might exist already however. The film is based off a 2007 graphic novel by Vázquez, a rather difficult to find title called PSICONAUTAS. Whether it delves deeper into the world of Birdboy in a satisfying way is something I’m considering finding out, despite the inadequacy of my Spanish, as Birdboy’s visual splendor, plus demented dystopianism really had a strong effect on me.
I find it satisfying that I took to the film so wholeheartedly, as Birdboy is a short animation that has been on my radar for a while. Winner of dozens of festival awards, the film qualified for both the Goya Awards, (Spain’s version of the Oscars), as well at the Oscars (umm our version of the Oscars?). Now it can add an equally impressive credit to its name—a member of the Short of the Week collection. 😉