I, Barnabé
2020 · 15m · Canada
Directed by Jean-François Lévesque
Genres: drama, fantasy, surrealism
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, surreal
During a stormy night of drinking, a desperate man is visited by a mysterious bird and is compelled to reconsider the course and meaning of his life.
Picked by Margot
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A man and a bird have an existential chat during a bender—sounds like the premise every MFA program rejected, but Lévesque commits to the surrealism without winking, which is almost interesting enough to forgive how earnest it gets.
Lévesque situates this firmly in the lineage of magic-realist cinema and Bergmanesque spiritual reckoning, and the formal restraint—how the film lets the surreal imagery breathe without explaining itself—demonstrates the kind of considered mise-en-scène that separates controlled vision from self-indulgent whimsy.
The decision to keep the bird's presence ambiguous—never confirming whether it's real, hallucinated, or metaphysical—does more narrative work than elaborate staging ever could, and that restraint is what transforms a modest 15 minutes into something that stays with you.