The Painted Bird

For over a decade, Václav Marhoul worked on his ambitious adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski's novel The Painted Bird. The epic is superbly shot on 35mm film, and revolves around "The Boy" whose name we do not know and whose words we do not hear as he attempts to survive in the impossible reality of Eastern Europe during World War II. His persecuted parents sent him off to a foster parent, but she, too, perishes and he is left all alone, wandering from village to village, exposed to horrors that words cannot describe as he tries to survive. But the film also captures moments of compassion and hope, as well as magnificent performances by Harvey Keitel, Udo Kier, and Stellan Skarsgard.