Drunken Birds (2021)

'Drunken Birds' is one of Canada's best French movies.

'Drunken Birds' is artfully directed by Ivan Grbovic, a tapestry of challenging emotions balanced by dramatic cinematography offering hope.

The opening scene of a man fleeing in a car on fire was the best of 2021. It suggested a stylish crime drama, a man escaping the local drug cartel. However, the spark was a woman and thus, for a while, it became a passionate romance.

With our Mexican protagonist's (Jorge Antonio Guerrero) arrival in Canada, in search of his love who escaped her husband, it transforms into an immigrant drama that, initially, seems unlike others.

Genre blurs again, the farmer's family problems gaining equal attention - his failing marriage, his wife's infidelity, his daughter's coming-of-age frustration.

The stories of the lovers, the exploited immigrant and a family in crisis could have easily been three movies. But they're skillfully intermingled towards an explosive ending.

I cannot properly explain how I felt emotionally except that it was the same as when I watched director Carlos Reygadas' epic 'Our Time', beauty and distraught combined.