In the first half of the 19th century, the French ornithologist Jean-Jacques Audubon travelled to America to depict birdlife along the Mississippi River. Audubon was also a gifted painter. His life’s work in the form of the classic book ‘Birds of America’ is an invaluable documentation of both extinct species and an entire world of imagination. During the same period, early industrialisation and the expulsion of indigenous peoples was in full swing. The gorgeous film traces Audubon’s path around the South today. The displaced people’s descendants welcome us and retell history, while the deserted vistas of heavy industry stretch across the horizon. The magnificent, broad images in Jacques Loeuille’s atmospheric, modern adventure reminds us at the same time how little - and yet how much - is left of the nature that Audubon travelled around in. His paintings of the colourful birdlife of the South still belong to the most beautiful things you can imagine.

Au début du XIXe siècle, un peintre français, Jean-Jacques Audubon, parcourt la Louisiane pour peindre tous les oiseaux du Nouveau Continent. La découverte des grands espaces sauvages encourage l’utopie d’une jeune nation qui se projette dans un monde d’une beauté inouïe. Depuis, le rêve américain s’est abîmé et l’œuvre d’Audubon forme une archive du ciel d’avant l’ère industrielle. Sur les rives du Mississippi, Birds of America retrouve les traces de ces oiseaux, aujourd’hui disparus, et révèle une autre histoire du mythe national.

Egy amerikai odüsszeia a Mississippi folyó partján, amely az Egyesült Államok politikájának újszerű ellentörténeteként bontakozik ki környezetvédelmi szempontból.

조류 연구의 아버지이자, 새를 사랑한 화가 존 제임스 오듀본은 평생을 바쳐 새의 모습을 그렸다 . 제작기간 12년, 50명의 채색가, 조류 489종 1,065마리를 담은 435점의 사실화로 구성된 인류 역사상 가장 위대한 도감 북미의 새(The Birds of America). 여객비둘기, 캐롤라이나 앵무새, 상아부리 딱따구리. 지금은 멸종된 새들의 생생한 모습이 담긴 마지막 기록이자 한 남자의 새를 향한 뜨거운 사랑이 이제 스크린 위에서 펼쳐진다