2020 Interview with Udo Kier - The Painted Bird

Описание: CineSnob.net editor Kiko Martinez interview actor Udo Kier for the film, The Painted Bird. Martinez named The Painted Bird the 7th best film of 2020 and called it "a tragic, soul-crushing experience."

The Painted Bird review:
Czech filmmaker Václav Marhoul’s The Painted Bird is one of the most disturbing WWII-era films to come around in a while. Based on author Jerzy Kosiński’s controversial 1965 novel of the same name, the black and white Czech film follows an unnamed, 6-year-old Jewish boy, who is sent by his parents to live with his elderly aunt in a war-torn Eastern European village near the end of the war. When his aunt dies, the boy sets off on a harrowing journey home during which he encounters various types of people, including a bird breeder who treats him well, but is distracted by a sexually deviant woman; a pedophile who threatens to kill him if he tells a local priest that he is being raped; and a Nazi soldier tasked to execute him. If that already sounds like too much to handle, The Painted Bird, which clocks in at two hours and 49 minutes, is not a road you will want to travel.

It’s a visceral nightmare that is equal parts brutal and beautifully photographed. Czech cinematographer Vladimír Smutný captures the inhumanity through elegant camerawork and uncompromising violence. The film is about the ultimate suffering of one child who fights for his survival by any means necessary.

As the boy, non-actor Petr Kotlár gives a stunning performance much like non-actor Zain Al Rafeea did last year playing a young Syrian refugee in the Lebanese drama Capernaum. Kotlár holds his own in scenes with veteran actors like Stellan Skarsgård, Udo Kier, Harvey Keitel, Julian Sands and Barry Pepper. Overall, The Painted Bird is a tragic, soul-crushing experience that – even if admired by viewers – will likely never be revisited again.