Pájaros muertos (2008) Reviews

• The birds

  jotix1002010-12-28

  The gated community of 'Los Pajaros' is, by all appearances, a safe place; never mind the houses look the same. The place is populated with people of a certain status, although we only get to know two of the families in this suburban community. As the story begins, Berta, seen riding a bicycle, discovers a dead bird in the middle of the street. She is shocked, as well as repulsed. When she gets home, she tells her husband, Esteban, of her finding. Berta, who has a son and a daughter, both teenagers, prohibits them from going to that street again. They must avoid it at all costs. Berta's neighbors, Hugo and Monica, are two Argentine immigrants that have settled in Spain for a while now. They are facing a precarious existence. Hugo is out of work, but Monica wants to pretend everything is fine with them. She is Berta's best friend, spending time with her at the communal pool of the complex. Monica's eldest daughter, is staying in the house while her mother pretends she went to New York to perfect her English skills. Her youngest girl wants to be a model like Kate Moss. Hugo, who was involved in algae, has lost his business, with no prospects for getting ahead. Suddenly, all kinds of dead birds are spotted in the complex. Something must be done about it, the sooner, the better. Esteban discovers two young women living across his street and lusts after them. Berta has a secret life away from Esteban where she indulges in liquor, pot and pills. The two families have their own problems, their situation is aggravated by the dead birds that drop the moment they enter the close knitted community. Jorge and Guillermo Sempere made their directorial debut with this black comedy about the stifling place that serves to protect them from the outside world. The film is a metaphor about living safe lives when the evil is within the same community that shelters them. The film was written by Gisela Benenzon and Gorka Esteban. To their credit, the directors keep the film on the light side with humor that is black. The brothers Sempere get great results from their cast. In the ensemble cast Eduardo Blanco, a character actor that has been seen in a few films from Argentina with Ricardo Darin, makes an impression as Hugo. Claudia Fontan, also from Argentina, has good moments as the pretentious Monica. Silvia Marso plays Berta and Alberto Jimenez is seen as Esteban.

• Charmingly flaky

  mannin112010-08-10

  Cute little movie about the occupants of a gated community and the secrets and suppressed desires they conceal from the world outside. When a dead sparrow is found on the road in their perfectly sterile community it is enough to send a wave of shock and horror throughout the neighborhood, mounting in a confusion of supposed life-threatening viruses that are merely a symbol of their own hypocrisies. From the pill-popping mother of the anorexic teenage daughter, to the sexually frustrated father lusting after the next door neighbor lesbian couple, to the financially strapped neighbors doing everything to project an aura of affluence, the hypocrisy mounts. When more and more free flying birds die once they hit the rarefied air of the gated community and exterminators are called in to gas the entire area, the teenage hero, the only one who recognizes the dangers of suburban conformity, escapes with his girlfriend to the real world. Low key and charmingly funny, this is a movie that creeps up on you with its flakiness. As an allegory of the dangers of the "little boxes" mentality of conformity it is extremely well done. Not on the same scale as American Beauty, but with the same undertones, this is a nice little movie with a message. Worth spending time on.