In his most audacious film since his groundbreaking debut O FANTASMA, João Pedro Rodrigues reimagines the myth of Saint Anthony of Padua as a modern-day parable of sexual and spiritual transcendence.
On a bird-watching expedition in the remote wilderness of northern Portugal, Fernando ( the especially gorgeous Paul Hamy) capsizes his canoe and loses his bearings. His ensuing odyssey, both intensely physical and wildly metaphysical, involves sadistic Chinese pilgrims, a deaf-mute shepherd named Jesus, pagan tribes, Amazons on horseback, and a glorious variety of feathered friends.
Shot entirely outdoors and in magnificent ‘Scope by Rui Pocas, THE ORNITHOLOGIST is a bracing exercise in queer spirit, a cheerfully blasphemous tale of a religious awakening.
THE ORNITHOLOGIST
