To agori troei to fagito tou pouliou

Director-screenwriter Ektoras Lygizos, who has followed the same path from theatre to film as his acclaimed countryman Yorgos Lanthimos, gives us an astonishing picture of a poverty-stricken reality. Shot entirely on a handheld camera that’s always intensely close to the subject, BOY EATING THE BIRD’S FOOD is Lygizos’s debut feature. Yorgos is a 23-year-old man with an exemplary singing voice. Unable to find a job that allows him to make use of his talent, he struggles to earn his living and is left with just enough coins to fit inside a Kinder egg capsule. Finding it impossible to pay the bills or buy food, he survives by eating the seeds he buys to feed his pet canary. Becoming physically and emotionally weak, he refuses to ask for financial help from friends and family, admitting to the girl he desires that his hunger-stricken life has taken him to the border of insanity. (Georgia Korossi)