Feathers (2023)

Egyptian director Omar El Zohairy's debut full length feature comes with a tantalising set up; a loutish and controlling husband is turned into a chicken after a magic trick at his son's birthday party goes awry. The focus of the film isn't the husband however, it's his long-suffering wife (a wonderful turn from Demyana Nassar) who through a nearly wordless performance manages to convey a huge range of emotions hidden beyond the everyday mundanity of her almost prison like existence.

After the magic trick goes wrong, the Mother attempts to maintain her husband's income but is told that she needs to provide documentation proving her husband's death or disappearance, which she can't do thanks to one room of their squalid and tiny apartment now housing a chicken.

El Zohairy's film is bleak and at times very blackly comedic, although it's difficult to feel amusement for any length of time; the various imagery of the Mother putting down feed for the chicken is at once bizarre and ridiculous, but is a constant reminder of the predicament she still finds herself in. Her husband may well be unable to harass her in human form, but is no less of a burden.

Feathers is, at times, a Kafka-esque tale, borrowing most notably from his 1915 novel Metamorphosis but almost as a reversal of itself with the focal point being the individual(s) not party to the actual transformation.

El Zohairy certainly puts down a marker with Feathers, combining hardened realism of everyday life with comedic absurdity that makes for a remarkably composed debut feature, ending on a note that feels somewhat inevitable but still leaves you with lingering questions. 7.1/10