Man Is Not a Bird is an antic, free-form portrait of the love lives of two less-than-heroic men who labor in a copper factory. For this first feature, following years of making documentaries and experimental shorts, Dusan Makavejev and his crew set up shop in Bor, a mining town in the mountains near Yugoslavia’s border with Bulgaria, interviewing the workers in the region and even shooting footage inside the local ore factories. Yet the result is hardly a staid tribute to the working class. Also featuring seductive Milena Dravic, who would go on to star in Makavejev’s groundbreaking WR: Mysteries of the Organism, Man Is Not a Bird is one of cinema’s most assured and daring debuts.
Cast
| Rajka | Milena Dravić |
| Jan Rudiniski | Janez Vrhovec |
| Barbulović’s wife | Eva Ras |
| Barbulović | Stole Arandelovic |
| Bosko | Boris Dvornik |
| Roko the Hypnotist | Roko Cirkovic |
Credits
| Director | Dušan Makavejev |
| Producer | Dušan Perkovic |
| Screenplay | Dušan Makavejev |
| Assistant director | Kokan Rakonjac |
| Cinematography | Aleksander Petkovic and Branko Perak |
| Editing | Ljubica Nesic |
| Art direction | Dragoljub Ivkov |
| Music | Petar Bergamo |
Oct 14, 2009
If there’s any way to classify Dušan Makavejev’s unclassifiable films, it’s as products of the cinematically revolutionary sixties. And that’s the tack critics took this week in their reviews of our new Eclipse set of the Serbian director’s first three films, Dušan . . .
by Michael Koresky
Oct 13, 2009
MAN IS NOT A BIRD: FLYING AWAY
The term “independent cinema” has lost its punch in recent years, from overuse and misapplication . . .