BIRDS FLYING EAST
Colombo works at a 24-hour parking lot and tops up his measly wages by selling weed. Mario is a lawyer and a keen birdwatcher, but unfortunately for him, he is unable to drive due to a past accident. Mario offers to pay Colombo to drive him from Valencia to a lake in the Costa Brava (Spain), where he wants to see some cranes. When they reach the lake, the lawyer tells him that the birds have changed their migratory route and are now going to nest in the Danube delta in Constanza (Romania). Mario needs to get there and Colombo needs the money. Neither of them is aware of the other’s story, but at that moment, a new and definitive journey starts for both of them.
“An engaging and energetic tragi-comic take on the multiple insecurities of masculinity in middle-age.” Screen International
"Javier Gutiérrez and Luis Zahera are outstanding." Diario Sur
"A story that spreads its wings and embraces you." Butaca y butacón
"Wonderful work by Gutiérrez and Zahera in this film that is both emotional and luminous.” La Razón
“Birds Flying East grows thanks to its performers and the director's reflection on what unites such different Europeans […]: parties, music, corruption, friendship, solidarity and, of course, football.” El Pais
“Durà has made a film about the consequences of middle-age and the challenge of emancipation, [along the lines of] those Italian films from the 50s and 60s, where the characters are split open to reveal their internal destruction, which is always accompanied by laughter.” El Pais
“An escape, a story of two, lost and wounded souls. The birds, a pleasing metaphor, and the skies, their immense homeland. And the road, the key element in all the road-movies ever made: the road from the Costa Brava to Turin, Slovenia, Hungary and Romania. An unexpected journey, where there is time for romance, euphoria and, basically, an emotional meltdown. Two fabulous actors […] A beautiful, yet painful ending, where the birds appear and the flutter of their wings can be heard in the soul.” Cinemania