WATCHING PEOPLE WATCHING BIRDS (GER 2026)

Our last connection to nature is birds.

People have always interpreted the flight of birds and listened to their songs.

As if in some distant time, when human beings sought guidance from the skies and read auguries of the will of the gods from the patterns of birds in flight, we encounter a wide variety of people in our film. Equipped with binoculars and spotting scopes, they gaze into the distance: they are not only looking for rare species, but also for a sense of connection, for peace, for their place in the world.

WATCHING PEOPLE WATCHING BIRDS is a film about seeing and hearing, about observing - it is a film about sharpening the senses and about the ability to concentrate and focus on a single moment—and about how we establish relationships through our gaze.

We quickly realize that turning to nature is by no means escapism, but rather points to the most pressing issue of our time. After all, it's about the basis of our existence, about the state of our planet.

We approached the subject very openly and freely. Where the journey would take us was not clear at the beginning: would it be a film about quirky guys who are a bit nerdy about bird watching?

But the deeper we delved, the more vehemently we became aware of the urgency. There are also bizarre moments, but observing the dwindling nature, the dying species and birds leads to a sad realization and a deep pain: humanity has traded the richness of biodiversity for profit and desolation. We have neglected the essence of our planet in favor of ever-increasing profit. Without birds, we humans would not survive for long, and yet we continue to senselessly and selfishly destroy their habitats and, at the same time, our planet—on both a small and large scale.

The voices of birds are becoming quieter and fewer, while the environment is becoming louder and noisier. That is why we are interested in people who listen and look closely.

For decades, all our films have dealt with the transformation of society, landscapes, working environments, and with disappearance itself, with things that are irretrievably lost. So it was natural for us to turn to nature and the people who care for birds and nature, who draw strength and love from it and are committed to its preservation.
While our previous films were always about change and accepting it, WATCHING PEOPLE WATCHING BIRDS is about accepting the irreversibility of change; it is about accepting death. It is about the end that has begun and humanity's failure to turn back in time, despite knowing better. Our film is about longing, perhaps a desperate or futile longing for how the world could be, but no longer is.

Brittle, authentic, and direct - it was very important to us that all the bird and nature shots were discovered and filmed by ourselves with a lot of patience and that we did not resort to spectacular images from stock archives. Because we are not interested in the bombastic, the spectacular, but in the quiet tones, the small discoveries, the tiny, brief moments that mean complete happiness.

“I'm doing it because they are beautiful and also because it's a feeling in my heart. I just feel happier when I look at a bird and I feel more present,” says world-famous writer and passionate birdwatcher Jonathan Franzen.

Our fascination with bird life and the beauty of this part of nature has infected us and sharpened our view of bird life and the threatening state of our planet.

Beauty and finiteness are closely related. This lends the film a deep melancholy. But there are also moments of hope when our protagonists campaign for the preservation of endangered species.

Viewers will leave the cinema with a different perception of their environment. At a time when overload, noise, and digital distractions cloud our perception, the film sharpens the senses and awakens a longing to recognize what is essential and to hear and interpret the signals of birds, just like the augurs of a bygone era. The day we start caring for birds is the day we start caring for ourselves.