Greek Film Premiere of Babis Makridis’ “Birds” on our YouTube channel

“Birds (Or How to Be One)” is a hybrid film lying on the borders between documentary, fiction, and political fantasy. And given its free spirit, it seems fitting that it is the first Greek film to premiere on YouTube and not in theaters (which are its natural habitat). “Birds” by filmmaker Babis Makridis – who also directed “L” (Sundance Film Festival, 2012), and “Pity” (Sundance Film Festival, 2018 – Greek Film Academy Award for Best Film 2019) – is a film about falling and flying, about the human need to take flight, about the fear of heights, vertigo, utopia, freedom, the gods, and humankind.

The film draws inspiration from the archetypical myth that is Aristophanes’ “The Birds”, as well as Nikos Karathanos’ production of the play and its performers, filming them off stage, in real-life spaces and natural landscapes – from the lava fields of Iceland to the plateaus of Patagonia, and from Times Square to the pyramids of Egypt. Everything takes place in a universe of ever-shifting everyday life, in among people from the theater, ornithologists, and sage hermits – all of whom dream of flying high.

An escape-manual of a film, one about bird watching, but where the birds are in fact people.

Open a new window, catch the film’s premiere on the Onassis Foundation YouTube Channel and dream that you too can fly.

Length: 80 min., English and Greek subs available.