Intolerance is a universal and timeless theme. In re-adapting Hans Christian Andersen’s story of The Ugly Duckling (1842) to apply it to the bird community, the Croatian film-maker Miran Miošić brings the tale up to date by adding fresh outlooks. Here it’s not by finding a new family that the child who is different discovers, as an adult, his place in society.
When pollution disturbs the environment for all birds, the white crow finds a magnificent place where all his fellow fliers can live. Thus the most marginalised character becomes the hero precisely because, having been shunned, he was driven to go see what was happening elsewhere. This fable condemns intolerance and encourages everyone to accept as a gift whatever makes them different. The story starts with the crows’ dark uniformity and evolves towards a marvellous bounty of different colours that show how beautiful it is to live in a society where difference is regarded as richness.
The strength of this short film is that it touches us and transmits its message without using words, thanks to the intelligence of the telling and the clever way the animation plays with colours.
