Street-smart 12-year-old Bailey (played by terrific newcomer Nykiya Adams) lives in a graffiti-tagged squat near the British seaside with her reckless half-brother Hunter (Jason Buda) and her heavily tattooed man-child father, Bug (a perfectly chaotic Barry Keoghan), who’s rushing into a wedding he can’t afford to a woman he barely knows. Adrift in the confusion of adolescence, Bailey finds a kindred spirit in a magnetic stranger named Bird (Franz Rogowski), whose quest to find his estranged family leads Bailey to confront her own mother’s abusive new boyfriend.
This touching coming-of-age drama from three-time Cannes Jury Prize-winning filmmaker Andrea Arnold (American Honey; Fish Tank) matches seasoned actors Keoghan and Rogowski with an authentic cast of first-time performers. With its inventive editing, killer soundtrack, and top-notch cinematography by Robbie Ryan (Poor Things), the film immerses us in the hidden beauty of North Kent through Bailey’s young eyes. The result is a tender portrait of girlhood on the fringes, with a magical realist twist.
Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski, Nykiya Adams
UK/USA/France/Germany
2024
English
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Claude Amadeo, Mollye Asher, Len Blavatnik, Jessamine Burgum, Danny Cohen, Michael D’Alto, Kara Durrett, Randal Sandler, Chris Triana, Eva Yates
Producer
Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell, Lee Groombridge
Screenwriter
Andrea Arnold
Cinematography
Robbie Ryan
Editor
Joe Bini
Production Design
Maxine Carlier
Andrea Arnold
Andrea Arnold studied directing at the AFI Conservatory and won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for Wasp in 2005. Her debut film, Red Road, won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2006, and Fish Tank received the Jury Prize and a BAFTA for Best British Film in 2009. Arnold’s other works include Wuthering Heights (2011), American Honey (2016), and the documentary Cow (2021). In 2024, Arnold premiered her latest film Bird at Cannes and was honoured with the Carrosse d’Or Award.
Filmography: Red Road (2006); Fish Tank (2009); Wuthering Heights (2011); American Honey (2016); Cow (2021)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Executioner
Regularly cited as the greatest Spanish film ever made, Berlanga's masterpiece is a pitch black comedy about an undertaker lined up by the state executioner to marry his beautiful daughter -- but he'll also have to inherit the old man's job.
The Mother and the Bear
Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.
The Plague
At a water polo camp, Ben is plunged into the deep end of toxic peer pressure. Terrified of incurring his campmates’ wrath, he joins them in tormenting a kid whose skin rash has been branded “the plague”. But then he experiences a breakout of his own...
The Flamenco Guitar of Yerai Cortés + Por Derecho (For the Right) Live
Winner of the Goya Award for Best Documentary, this is an exquisite and surprisingly intimate portrait of the brilliant young guitarist Yerai Cortés, preceded by an hour of passionate flamenco music, song and dance performed by Flamenco Rosario.