Birds of Passage

Les oiseaux de passage

Birds of Passage

Olivier Ringer

BE / FR
2015
Feature Film
83’
Film Education

When Cathy gets a duck egg from her father for her tenth birthday, she doesn’t quite know what to make of it. She then misses the moment when the baby duck hatches but her friend Margaux looks on as the duckling emerges from the shell. The duckling then thinks that Margaux is its mum, and the girls decide that Margaux should take it home with her. But Margaux is a wheelchair user and her parents aren’t sure their daughter is up to the responsibility of looking after a living creature. So they give the baby duck to a breeding farm. The girls are horrified about this and are soon set on saving their little protégé. The exciting quest for liberation begins.

Ringer’s buoyant road movie relates the friendship of what are at first glance two quite different girls and how they overcome their limits. Both children grow up in over-protective families, so rescuing the newborn duck on their own initiative represents their first courageous steps toward freedom and self-determination. Ringer’s film excels particularly through its strong visual language, serving up new original motifs for depicting the restrictive hardships of life in a wheelchair.


Awards for ›Birds of Passage‹
ECFA-Award 2016 – European Children’s Film Association | Sonderpreis des Mitteldeutschen Rundfunks – Schlingel. Internationales Filmfestival für Kinder und junges Publikum 2015 | Audience Favourite – Carrousel International du Film de Rimouski 2015 | International Jury Award – Buster Film Festival for Children and Youth 2015 | Grand Prix (International Jury) – Montréal International Film Festival for Children 2015 | Grand Prix – Kineko International Children’s Film Festival Tokyo 2015 | Bambino Gesù Hospital Award – Giffoni Film Festival 2015 | Golden Slipper – Zlín Film Festival 2015

Director

Olivier Ringer

Script

Olivier Ringer, Yves Ringer

Cinematography

Mihnea Popescu

Editing

Alante Alfandari

Sound

Vincent Mauduit, Igor Thomas-Gerard

Music

Bruno Alexiu

Cast

Clarisse Djuroski, Lea Warny, Alain Eloy, Myriem Akkhediou, Angelo Dello Spedale, Jeanne Dandoy, Camille Voglaire, Renaud Rutten

Production

Ring Prod, Les Films d’Antoine, Good Lap

Olivier Ringer

Born 1961 in Brussels, Ringer began his career as a camera assistant, including for Jean Badal and Henri Alekan. In 1987, he made his first short film Haute pression. Before he made his first feature film in 2006, he worked as a director for video clips, commercials as well as numerous sketches for the French satirical show Les Guignols de l’info on Canal+. His second long film À pas de loup was shown at the Berlinale in the Generation section in 2011 and a year later won the ECFA Award for Best European Film for Children.


Films by Olivier Ringer
À pas de loup 2011 | Pom le poulain 2006 | Haute pression 1987