Synopses |
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Logline
Confronting her future, Mary seeks freedom in an elusive bird and is shown a solution by a rebellious little girl.
Short Synopsis
Mary is confronted by different options for her future— independence at a cost or the confinement of traditional roles. In her efforts to rise above these limiting scenarios, Mary is offered a glimpse of freedom in the bird she seeks as well as a potential solution in the actions of a rebellious little girl.
Long Synopsis
Mary searches the sky with binoculars, referring to an image of a bird. The sky is revealed to be a circular picture held up by people indifferent to their task.
Nearby, a blue figure, Water, carries water back to a camp. There, Fire tends the hearth and Power hones her arrows. These three women mystically portray traditional female roles: mothers, hunter-gatherers, keepers of the flame.
Later in the day, a larger-than-life Swella floats overhead. The people around Mary run in fear. Mary reaches out to Swella but Swella is unable to alter her course and floats away.
Further along, a mob waits for Swella. They lash her with ropes and bring her down. Mary’s inability to help Swella creates a sense of complicity: she dissipates into ropes, and reappears on a landscape of the ropes that bind Swella. As Mary tries to comfort her, Swella cries tears that turn to coins. Mary swallows the coin. Mary is transformed into a piggybank and passes through the crowd.
Just beyond the crowd, Mary encounters Fire and Power as they hunt. Power turns her weapon on Mary the pig, but is stopped by Fire. The women argue and Mary escapes.
Mary falls into a crater, comes to under attack, and escapes through a small hole. Mary resumes human form as she travels through what resembles a birth canal and falls. Then Mary coughs up the coins along with a small girl, Rocky, and falls asleep. Trying to awaken Mary, Rocky finally throws a coin at Mary and stomps away in a tantrum.
In Rocky’s wake, Mary finds and follows a trail of bird tracks. Where Mary stops to rest, she is run over and trisected by two gigantic coins.
The primitive women find Mary bring her back to their camp. The bird lands near Mary, and they finally meet. As the bird and Mary nuzzle, the women see the bird and attack. The bird defends itself, but is killed.
Mary cries and remembers Rocky. Digging out a coin, Mary channels Rocky’s spirit and throws the coin at Power, knocking her down. The women leave.
Mary holds the bird’s head in her hands. She slides her arms into the bird’s wing and becomes the bird. The film closes as the day dawns and Mary leaps from the cliff: viewers are left to wonder whether she falls or flies.
Synopses written by Catherine Sears
