Movie

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

2014 · 101 min

A series of static, deadpan tableaux that drift between bleak absurdity and surreal nightmare, demanding patience but rewarding with unsettling, darkly funny images.

Directed by: Roy Andersson
Genres: Drama, Comedy, Fantasy
Starring: Holger Andersson, Nisse Vestblom, Viktor Gyllenberg

Overview: An absurdist, surrealistic and shocking pitch-black comedy, which moves freely from nightmare to fantasy to hilariously deadpan humour as it muses on man’s perpetual inhumanity to man.

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Directed by: Roy Andersson
Genres: Drama, Comedy, Fantasy
Starring: Holger Andersson, Nisse Vestblom, Viktor Gyllenberg

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How it feels

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Tone: darkstrength 3 of 3
absurdstrength 3 of 3
satiricalstrength 2 of 3
melancholicstrength 2 of 3
Pacing: slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: isolation
death
morality
work
identity
Places: big city
workplace
Era: contemporary
Audience: adult
Form: anthology
nonlinear
Content intensity: Gore mild
Language mild
Violence mild
Sex mild

All scales, 0 to 10

Scales, 0 to 10
Scale	Value	0 to 10
Action	1
Horror	3
Humour	7
Realism	4
Romance	1
Tension	4
Darkness	8
Complexity	8
Emotional weight	7

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Where to watch in the UK

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Curzon Amazon Channel

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Details

Genres: drama, comedy, fantasy
Directed by: Roy Andersson
Written by: Roy Andersson
Starring: Holger Andersson, Nisse Vestblom, Viktor Gyllenberg, Lotti Törnros, Jonas Gerholm, Ola Stensson, Oscar Salomonsson, Roger Olsen Likvern
Cinematography: Gergely Pálos, István Borbás
Runtime: 101 min
Country: France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark
Languages: English, Swedish

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A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

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