THE BIRDS

Short Talk with Pedro Magano (director)

BEST FULL-LENGHT FILM Category

22nd IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival 2025

Portugal, Fiction, Portuguese, 01:13:19, 2025

Synopsis: Isolated in a lifeless estuary with muddy banks, an old man who despises the gods lives alone, his only companion a caged cockatiel. To the bird, he confides his dreams of escaping his monotonous routine and founding a city where humans and birds can live freely. But Death is slowly approaching, accompanied by Time. Inspired by Mia Couto’s tale 'A Morte, o Tempo e o Velho' and Aristophanes’ play 'The Birds', this surreal fable delves into the relationship between humans, gods, and time, exploring the cycles of life and the quest for freedom.

Biography: Pedro Magano began his career as a camera operator and worked as a director of photography on film and TV. His directorial debut, the feature-length documentary OS IRMÃOS (2015), won the Caminhos do Cinema Português National Competition and the Golden Lynx award at FEST - New Directors/New Films. He’s directed and produced mainly documentaries that have been featured in festivals such as Festival Internacional de Cine de Gijón, É Tudo Verdade, DOCS MX, Festival de Cine de Cartagena, and others.

Pedro Magano, director 

Petar Penev: I’d like to start with a question about the source material. From what I know, the film is based on two texts: the play The Birds by Aristophanes and a short story by Miyakoto. How did you find the balance between these two very different works, one traditional, one contemporary?

Pedro Magano: Thank you for the question. The adaptation from the short story is connected to the characters, the narrative, and the mission of the main character. From Aristophanes’ The Birds, I took the concept, the message, the world. So in a way, it was quite natural to bring them together.

Petar Penev: From your biography, I understand this is your first feature-length fiction. Before that, you worked in documentary. Did your documentary background influence how you approached this film?

Pedro Magano: Yes, absolutely. We began the shoot with a full script, but from my documentary point of view, I like working with improvisation. We only had a schematic structure, and during the shoot, I was rewriting the script together with the team, and especially with the actors.

Petar Penev: That makes me curious, what is something you hadn’t considered before shooting, but that ended up in the final film?

Pedro Magano: The visual effects. At first, I didn’t know whether I would actually show the birds or not. In the end, there are only two shots with visual effects, but I didn’t realize at the beginning that I would need them at all.

Petar Penev: The location plays a huge role in the film, it reflects the inner world of the main character, and it’s stunning. How long did it take you to find it?

Pedro Magano: That was the easiest part, it’s my hometown. The landscape is a kind of homage to where I come from, so I knew it well. In a way, the swamp in the film is my homage to my roots.

Interviewer: Petar Penev

Editor: Martin Kudlac