Spread Your Wings
2019 · Directed by Nicolas Vanier
Original language: French
- adventure
- family
The story
Christian, a visionary scientist, studies wild geese. For his son, a teenager obsessed with video games, the idea of spending a holiday with his father in the wilderness is a nightmare. However, father and son will get together around a crazy project: save a species endangered, thanks to the ultralight of Christian! Then begins an incredible and perilous journey ...
What it’s like
Wide, sun-washed landscapes do most of the work here: long establishing shots of marshland, open skies and northern coastline, with the frame often holding the vast horizon while small figures and birds move through it. Natural daylight dominates, with bright, clear colour and warm golden-hour glows at the edges of the day, and the camera stays mostly steady and patient rather than restless. The sound leans on birdsong, wind, water and open air, with a gentle orchestral score that swells during the big flying moments and drops away to quiet in the calmer scenes. The vibe is warm, earnest and open-hearted, a summer-holiday outdoors film that suits a lazy weekend afternoon, a family viewing, or a rainy day when you want to be carried somewhere wide. Pacing is unhurried, with room for lots of scenery and easy humour. The emotional arc follows a prickly teenager and his distant, obsessive father slowly finding common ground, as their rough edges soften over the course of a shared adventure. Intensity is low: there is peril and some tense weather and terrain, but no gore, no sexual content, and no real cruelty. It is for families, animal lovers and anyone who wants a gentle, sweeping escape into nature.
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