The Birdcatcher

2018

1h 40m

History

Drama

List

17%

6 Reviews

Tomatometer

66%

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Audience Score

A young woman in Norway flees the Nazi roundup and conceals her identity while working on an occupied farm.

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Clive C

Despite the "critics" churlish reviews, I found this a touching film with the underrated Sarah-Sofie Boussnina superb once again in the leading role.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/25/24

Full Review

Bob S

very moving tense and beautiful.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

09/07/23

Full Review

Ian W

There is something about this film that resonates. It is well directed, with good cinematography and music. It tells a story of both the primeval and the enduring humanity amongst evil in its better sweet story of survival and love.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

09/01/23

Full Review

Frank S

Great movie, intriguing and moving. Forgot the critics, it endlessly amuses me how they can laud sci-if movies and then say that a drama like this falls short because it's not believable.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Martin B

Forget the critic reviews this is a heart rendering tale that will keep you engaged once you get past the first half hour or so. An unlikely scenario perhaps but the engaging none the less. The lead character discards her wet bright red coat that could be dried to keep her warm but symbolic of her life changing and never bright again as it drifts down the river. The barren winter landscape beautiful but inhospitable much like living in her homeland now controlled by Nazi's. Every character coming together in scenes yet virtually all having different goals that can never be reconciled. All having secrets. The ending both tragic and poignant at the same time. Our heroin escaping what most Jews could not in Nazi occupied territory while many of her enemies she had to endure silently did meet their end. The anti climax showing the girl now a woman that lost so much but never lost her humanity.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I found this more watchable, even at times moving, than the critics did. The ending especially touched me, the Jewish girl's quiet kindness to the woman who both helped to protect her disguise and betrayed her husband and nation. I am not a movie critic by trade, but I did help design and teach a college course called Literature and History of the Holocaust, have written and spoken on the subject, travelled to Poland and other eastern European countries, visited the sites of several death camps as well as several museums, and befriended a man, now gone, who survived Auschwitz. Most movies can't come close to the actual horror, but this one makes a decent attempt to convey something of the courage and resourcefulness of a Jew in hiding and those who at huge risk helped her stay hidden and ultimately survive.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

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Ross Clarke

Director

August Diehl

Herman

Sarah-Sofie Boussnina

Esther

Jakob Cedergren

Johann

Laura Birn

Anna

Johannes Kuhnke

Fred

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Kevin Maher

Times (UK)

This deeply dopey Second World War thriller, set in the snowscapes of Norway, takes an initially intriguing premise and runs it straight into an insuperable wall of ineptitude.

Rated: 1/5

Oct 4, 2019

Full Review

Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

Fads may change, tastes may come and fashions may go, but one thing seems constant: an inexhaustible market for ropey, hammy Euro-puddingish, lite-drama films set in the 1940s.

Rated: 2/5

Oct 3, 2019

Full Review

Keith Garlington

Keith & the Movies

Despite the sincere feeling behind it, “The Birdcatcher” is simply too hard to buy into.

Rated: 2.5/5

Aug 19, 2022

Full Review

Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

...deserves respect for spinning an entertaining story around events too dark to take centre stage...

Rated: 4/5

Feb 22, 2021

Full Review

David Parkinson

Radio Times

The cast does its best, but Clarke's unsubtle direction strains at every turn to universalise the story, and the movie is memorable solely for John Christian Rosenlund's striking photography.

Rated: 2/5

Oct 7, 2019

Full Review

Rich Cline

Shadows on the Wall

While the film looks great, and makes nice use of the picturesque settings, it never feels remotely realistic.

Rated: 2.5/5

Oct 3, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

A young woman in Norway flees the Nazi roundup and conceals her identity while working on an occupied farm.

Director: Ross Clarke
Producer: Peter Hampden, Norman Merry, Laure Vaysse, Laura Brook
Screenwriter: Trond Morten Kristensen
Production Co: Motion Picture Capital, Garnet Girl
Genre: History, Drama
Original Language: English (United Kingdom)
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 14, 2020
Runtime: 1h 40m

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