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A Bird Flew In

Kirsty Bell
United Kingdom, 2022, 95 min.

In English.

When the COVID 19 lock down is announced, the entire cast and crew of a feature film are sent home - alone. They are actors with no audience, production crew with no set and directors with no script. Couples fall apart, others come together and some find they are simply alone. A feature film composed of seven interlinked narratives, A Bird Flew In follows and examines what happens when we are freed from external distractions and forced to find a meaning in our loves and lives.

Director's Statement

When the pandemic hit the planet and the first lockdown happened, the world changed immeasurably for us all, and like a lot of people I felt entirely alone and very vulnerable – probably more so than any time in my adult life. Everyone of course had their own situations and challenges to overcome; for me it was my husband was stuck in Australia, and my octogenarian parents having to shield in their own home due to my mother’s dementia. Everyone’s circumstances were totally different, and I learned that you don’t have to be literally physically alone to feel that you are. So this, like everyone, gave me a lot to think about and re-evaluate my own life and how I viewed friends, family, business, and I took myself on a journey through this all. I imagined everyone’s own situations and designed different scenarios and homes, and people and relationships, thinking about the people I now saw on TV or Zoom and wondered at their own thoughts and what their challenges were and I started to create a story of vignettes in my head which eventually made its way on to paper. And with all the external distractions of the usual work and life routine gone really, I felt I needed an outlet. When the characters started to crystallise in my head I felt really compelled in to channelling my energy and frustrations in to telling their stories. The film is about people having to look themselves, inside and out, with all the noise and distraction removed that they would have experienced pre-COVID in their normal lives. We have been left simply and quite starkly to reflect on ourselves this last year. It’s been like holding a giant mirror up to our lives. Relationships and their lifespans have become condensed and reduced to a fraction of months – magnified and amplified. There was something primitive and we become creatures caged within our four walls. Like when a wild bird flies into a home and becomes trapped and despite all its efforts, with only a view of the outside world to pin its hope of escape on.

Category: Drama.