In the very first spoken exchange in “Bird Island,” Antonin, a young new recruit at an ornithological rehab center in Geneva, asks the jaded rat-and-mouse breeder Paul: “What’s that smell?”Paul replies matter-of-factly that it’s excrement. This deadpan directness characterizes Maya Kosa and Sergio da Costa’s whimsical hourlong feature about a sanctuary where injured birds are treated before being returned to the wild. The film is perched wryly between fiction and documentary. Except for Antonin, whose role was conceived by the directors, the actors are all actual staff at the center (in addition to Paul, there’s a veterinarian and a first-aid nurse). The film documents the quiet, daily labors that make up their hermetic little world — feeding, nurturing, healing and sometimes killing.

Source: New York Times September 24, 2020 11:00 UTC