I see how many competition mentions this short film has received. And for a short film, it's extremely ambitious and covers a lot of territory. It is shot very beautifully, so that at first glance it seems like a feature. I don't know how the director got some of these shots, especially the ones of the crowds waiting for the soldiers to ship off (or return). And on top of this, the majority of this short film is a period piece, taking place during one of the world wars (I'm going to say WWII, but sorry, it wasn't instantly clear).
That said, the story of a young boy who is constantly wearing a pair of home-made "wings" wherever he goes, coupled with the "discovery" letters from his closeted gay grandfather (who fought in the war and apparently lost the love of his life in it -- and the accompanying images that come to life as a result) does not come about naturally.
It doesn't make any sense that the grandfather's letters had never been opened. They were just dumped with the grandfather's things into a drawer and apparently his own son wasn't curious enough to open them? Which... I guess he was going to do someday, but never does? So, it falls to the gay grandson, who inexplicably decides one day to do just that.
Leading up to that are moments of cruel bullying in school, a teacher who grabs a drawing out of the boy's hands (but then, he was supposed to be doing his schoolwork, not drawing a bird), and moments with his (apparently) single dad who does his best to get the boy to learn how to defend himself. In fact, I thought the father was the best actor in it because he seemed very real to me.
After the two stories "dovetail" into some sort of bizarre fantasy sequence in which the boy stumbles into some weird forgotten "rooms of the past," each with an old, forgotten, injured or troubled soldier/patient in them, he finds a room in which a sparrow has apparently either been hiding and/or has been wounded and doesn't know how to get out. The boy lifts the sparrow (I don't know how they were able to do this without the bird panicking and flying off) and "sets" the bird free. Over this fantasy sequence, a Tom Waits-wannabe singer drones on about something very, very heavy-handed, and then... the film ends.
So, if you are into tons of symbolism and can allow yourself to slip into a real, yet imaginary world, you might enjoy it. I thought the cinematography was great, but I did not think the story was coherent enough for the number of awards this film has received. I apparently am in the minority, and that is fine with me.
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