Birdie

Mariana Macháňová / Czech Republic / 2026 / World Premiere / 20 min.

synopsis

Through an intimate, unfiltered video diary, Mariana Macháňová captures her family’s grief as her mother approaches death. For the filmmaker, the camera becomes both a therapeutic tool and a means of creating distance. She records meanderings down sterile hospital corridors, taking what is likely their last selfie together in her mother’s hospital bed, and the scattering of her ashes. Coming to terms with loss also prompts reflections on the ethics of this kind of filming. The filmmaker asks whether it is acceptable to bring a camera into moments of extreme vulnerability, when the act of filming helps one turn fleeting fragments into something lasting and thus process grief.

“So I thought I’d heal myself by making a film.”