Portuguese filmmaker #JoaoPedroRodriguez's The Ornithologist tells a gay ornithologist's long and winding journey to self-discovery/sainthood in a series of misadventures while kayaking/hiking through the picturesque wilderness of Northern Portugal. Fernando is seen kayaking, observing rare birds through his trusty binoculars and communicating occasionally with his boyfriend through his cell phone. But the reception is spotty in the wilds. There is a constant reminder that he is being observed too from the sky, the top of the cliff or trees, that this is not a one-way affair. The increasing absurdity, punctuated by beautiful images of nature, this leisurely paced film is an intoxicating mix of madcap imagination and sensory cinematic experience that is truly hard to forget. It would make a great threesome with Honoré's Metamorphoses and Giuradie's Staying Vertical as examples of recent playful, eccentric and adventurous queer cinema at its best. #portuguesecinema