Director Vaclav Marhoul’s harrowing and beautiful adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird is a nearly 3-hour, black & white, Hieronymus Bosch-like hellscape.
Petra Kotlar hauntingly plays the young boy Petra, sent to a rural village in Eastern Europe to live with his “aunt” by his Jewish parents during World War II. When the woman unexpectedly dies, the orphaned boy flees through the forest and roams from town to town, encountering rabid anti-Semitism from hateful, wildly superstitious villagers. There are chapters in the film of the people he encounters during his journey, and one shudders at each introduction wondering what fresh hell the poor boy will encounter.
Familiar faces appear along the way. Udo Kier plays a violently jealous miller, Stellan Skarsgard– a sympathetic Nazi, Harvey Keitel– a kindly priest, Julian Sands– a fiendish child abuser, Barry Pepper– a Russian sniper.
Eventually the child is struck mute from the horror of it all. Like a scary Grimm’s fairy tale Petra’s journey is filled with cruelty and terror. The black & white cinematography by Vladimir Smutny recalls the dark lyricism of The Night Of the Hunter and the result is a film that is both gorgeous and grotesque at the same time. Make no mistake- this extraordinary vision of Kosinski’s unforgettable novel will devastate and stun you.
