The Nest Egg
2016 · 14m · UK
Directed by Lucy Patrick Ward
Genres: comedy, dark comedy, drama
Tones: darkly comic, melancholic, tender
A man in a chicken suit stands on a South London high street, inviting passersby to throw eggs at him for a price. As humiliation accumulates, his quiet purpose for the spectacle is gradually revealed.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A man monetizes his own degradation in a chicken suit and somehow it becomes genuinely moving—this is the kind of premise that makes you suspicious at first, then gutted by the end, which is exactly where experimental premises should leave you.
Ward's restraint in the revelation—the way she withholds the man's motivation until the humiliation has done its full dramatic work—situates this firmly in a lineage of fables that use spectacle and shame as moral instruments.
The entire film pivots on the single choice to keep the man's face mostly composed while strangers hurl eggs at him; that decision to play dignity against degradation is what transforms a gimmick into a statement about sacrifice.
Reviews
For the gentle idea, for the precise reference to bullying, for the spirit of old fairy tale or Frank Capra film, and for the acting — bitter poetry and something easy to define as magic.