Summary

Gernot Wieland's new film, Bird in Italian is Uccello (2021), furthers his interest in psychological states and the constitution of belonging in different social contexts. Drawing upon Daphne du Maurier’s short story The Birds, and its subsequent cinematic adaptation, Bird in Italian is Uccello (re)enacts a theatrical production of the horror-thriller. Working specifically with an account of a never performed theater production of Maurier’s story - one that was meant to be staged at a psychiatric hospital in northern Italy – Wieland's film inverts the original script’s roles: human characters become birds and the bird protagonists become humans.