In the heart of the Icelandic wilds lies a fjord called Loðmundarfjörður, home to a married couple, Ólafur and Jóhanna. Their yard is filled with tiny little huts and cozy-looking haystacks. These come in high demand, when thousands of birds migrate here to nest. It signals the need for the birds’ human companions to get to work: providing nesting materials, putting up scarecrows and keeping a keen eye from the lookout tower for foxes and seagulls after the eggs. Fortunately, help arrives in the form of friends, the son-in-law, and grandchildren. These people, who take naps in the hay and follow them up with cups of strong coffee, form their own separate flock in the yard.
This documentary is like visiting your grandmother’s cottage. The internet doesn’t work, and everything has remained in place for decades. The film doesn’t try to force specific emotions out of the viewer, instead allowing room for observation of the routines of this abode of birds. The beautiful cinematography brings the spectator close. Life with animals is also full of surprises: sometimes the baby birds waddle after the humans into a mountain stream to swim.
Co-directed by Mika Kaurismäki, Amongst the Birds is an endearingly funny depiction of the cycle of nature and the annual return of life in the spring. A human being can’t be all bad if they care this much about migratory birds.
Martta Tuppurainen