The Ornithologist

This is a blasphemous and homoerotic take on the life of Saint Anthony, brought to modern days.

Fernando (Paul Hamy) is out in nature camping on a riverbank birdwatching in Portugal. He gets into his yellow kayak watching all kinds of beautiful birds. He is so intent looking through his binoculars his kayak is swept into rapids and capsizes.

He is rescued by two Chinese women and strange rituals take place around him.

The Ornithologist was directed by João Pedro Rodrigues (To Die Like a Man, SFF 2010) and won Best Director at Locarno.

An extraordinarily rich, unpredictable fever-dream, a pilgrimage film that sits somewhere alongside Buñuel's The Milky Way (1969), Jarman's Sebastiane (1976) and Powell and Pressburger's A Canterbury Tale (1944) with its fusion of religious iconography and sexual and spiritual anguish. – Tom Charity, Sight & Sound

Mind-blowing in the best possible way. – Eric Cohn, Indiewire

You can watch the trailer below:

The movie is available on Netflix and here.