The short film Bird of Paradise (Nos Lions) effectively builds a sense of danger but gets lost in its own sense of mystery. The story revolves around a young woman who leaves the life and family she knows for a furtive wedding with her secret love. Yet not knowing the reasons for their secrecy or the couple’s ultimate plans saps the story of dramatic tension and urgency.
Director Mareike Engelhardt (Poke, Dumy Moyi) starts the film with a jolt as Nadia (Hana Mekacher, Yasmina) masturbates under a blanket with her love, Julien (Matthieu Lucci, The Male Gaze: Strikers & Defenders), on the phone. In the morning, she tries to take a selfie in new lingerie that she’s stashed behind a tile in the bathroom.
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Soon, Nadia is off for the day, walking a little boy to school. One of the film’s loose threads is how Nadia, a woman of color, is related to this white child, with whom she lives, and an older white man who appears to be the boy’s father. Nadia tells the boy how to heat up his food later and flat-out says she’s not his mother.
Then she’s on the subway, listening to Julien on headphones as he recalls falling in love with the sound of her voice. He cautions her not to look at anyone on her way to meet him. She wraps her head in a scarf, and at one stop, two other women in headscarves greet her warmly. “Assalamu alaikum, sister,” they say.
Bird of Paradise certainly implies that Julien is up to no good and that Nadia may be getting in over her head, a situation similar to the 2018 thriller Profile, where an undercover journalist starts to fall for a charming and handsome recruiter for the Islamic State. But where that film at least showed the recruiter’s seduction, Bird of Paradise doesn’t include such a foundation.
Viewers also don’t learn much about Julien or Nadia’s reasons for keeping their relationship quiet. The women tell Nadia how lucky she is that Julien “chose” her, and Engelhardt builds suspense as they escort her to a hotel, showing Nadia’s point of view as she watches for police and glances away, scanning other pedestrians. At the hotel, Julien is excited to see her, and the two share a tender embrace before he gives her a niqab to wear before escorting her inside for their wedding.
The final moments are short on romance, as well as answers about the couple’s future and what drew them together in the first place. Bird of Paradise definitely generates curiosity, but its scant details hold viewers at arm’s length instead of enabling the story to take flight.