The onset of World War II cuts a young Jewish boy off from his family and sets him adrift among the peasants of rural Poland. There, wide-eyed like a camera with its shutter stuck open, he witnesses atrocities and degradation, sexual and otherwise, that beggar the imagination: the title image refers to the hobby of a man who likes to capture a bird, paint its feathers different colors, and watch as its former fellows tear it apart as an intruder. The surreal carnival of violent depravity is made all the more horrifying when seen from the point of view of a boy who perceives all this as unsurprising and normal: He knows no better, and suffers it all with the endurance of the truly innocent.—L.G.