I compliment Netflix quite a bit on this blog, and have to do it again. A Swedish documentary called "Kestrel's Eye" caught my eye the other day. The opening moments were not confidence-building: how could a nature documentary without narration or a musical background hold my interest for almost an hour and a half?
Much to my surprise the lack of narration helped the movie. It made it seem so real. There have been other times when I've watched a movie in which the action was slow and the dialogue was understated, and wondered if this was really a movie. With "Kestrel's Eye" the viewer has to make a persistent effort to be satisfied without the noise and razzle-dazzle that we are accustomed to in entertainment products. And it worked.
The other advantage of no narration is that you are spared the predictable sermons and platitudes about 'what man has done to the Earth' or the 'delicate balance of nature.'
It's funny how animals are so good at certain things -- like hovering in the kestrel's case, and diving down to snatch the rodent -- but they seem confused and bumbling at other tasks. And you thought mistakes were invented by homo sapiens.
The first time I saw Papa kestrel carry the ejected egg from Mama to a safe location, I really didn't know what was happening. It was quite amazing. He certainly was a good provider, bringing rodents to the nest where Mama snatched them away and dispensed them to her brood of five chicks. How did she even keep track of which of those wiggling, cheeping heads hadn't been fed yet? It seemed like two of the five got 80% of the food -- a scene that should not have played all that well in socialist Sweden. Then again, maybe it was a different pair of chicks each time.
For variety's sake the film maker showed humans in proximity to the kestrels. It might not have been the film maker's intent, but he made the Swedes look so boring and tidy; their activities seemed so pointless and futile that, from the kestrel's perspective, humans were a curious and entertaining species. The nest was in a nook of an old church. They all made for such good neighbors.
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