The Paper Bird (Papirfuglen) is Norwegian director Anja Breien's seventh feature film based on a script made by herself and novelist Knut Faldbakken. The story is about the young Oslo-lawyer Helen who one day finds her father dead after a fall from a balcony on day she is coming to visit him.
She arrives just with a fraction of seeing him fall, and as police arrives to find him together with a lot of papers.
From then Helen has a riddle to solve. Was it a suicide or was it murder? Why did he have the papers on him when he dies? Why did he have a picture of a young girl? Why did he have cocaine in his blood? Who was he connected to? Who was he really?
On her way she meets a lot of strange reactions and different people, no-one really eager to talk.
Anja Breien herself thought this was some of her best work, particularly the ending of the movie. But the reviewers weren't too impressed.
I find the movie interesting, as a slow paced crime thriller, with a typical '80'ies feel. The dialog has the period weakness of feeling forced from time to time, annoying me as a Norwegian, especially in the beginning of the film, and sound is a bit uneven.
Bjørn Floberg is as always great in his role, as he is an asset in any movie he participates in.
The film is not Anja Breien's best, but is well worth a watch.
This movie is as a part of "Norwegian Film Heritage" made available in 2024 when it was released on interregional Blu-Ray Disk by Norwegian Film Classics as the 45th release in a new series with classics, NFK0045, with subtitles in English, and is supposed to be held in stock for film lovers.
