TADFF 2013 Short Film, Short Review: MY FATHER IS A BIRD

Out of Jerusalem comes this 13-minute examination of life and death and puberty. Young Benny is quickly discovering boners and what to do with them in his private moments. This would all be pretty normal, if not for his father being a 6 foot tall bird.  

He flies Benny back and forth to school, and occasionally takes him for lunch, sitting on power lines. When Dad suddenly (and violently) takes ill and starts dropping out of the sky, along with experiencing serious troubles eating dinner at the suburban home he lives in with his otherwise human family, the doctor connects Benny's recent (and compulsive) masturbation as being the direct cause.  

As 13-year-old Benny furiously and futilely tries to prevent himself from relieving his urges and killing his father, things inevitably ramp up to a feverish sexual need.  Underneath the deadpan sense of humour, lo-fi charm and unabashed scatological silliness, director Boaz Debby sneaks in a rather poignant message about the inevitability of youth to leech their life's-blood from their progenitors. In other words, selfishness is part of the human experience no matter how much our brains try to deny it. Our children love us, even as they kill us ... and that's OK.

My Father is a Bird played as part of the Shorts After Dark programme at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.


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