Eastern Europe is in the final throes of World War II. A boy is dispatched by his Jewish parents to an elderly relative in an effort to escape persecution. Following a tragedy, the boy is forced to wander through the desecrated countryside, encountering villagers and soldiers whose own lives have been brutally altered, intent on revisiting this brutality on the child. A cinematic masterpiece – shot in crisp black and white 35mm – Václav Marhoul’s The Painted Bird does far more than simply depict the horror of war. It is an unflinching examination of the very worst of humanity. SE