The Ornithologist

“Things happen, you just have to believe.”

Fernando (Paul Hamy) is a birdwatcher kayaking a river fjord in northern Portugal when his kayak is lost and leaves him stranded, with no explanation for what pulls him further in. João Pedro Rodrigues sends him through a string of brutal and erotic trials, each one modeled on the Stations of the Cross. Along the way a young deaf shepherd, Jesus (Xelo Cagiao), keeps turning up near him, and the pull between the two men grows harder to read.