Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

tobiqq1 I too disagree that this film would need more context to deserve a higher rating. What was attempted there was to give an impression from the world of Karachi runaway boys. People who argue that more objective context information should have been put in, have totally missed the point in my opinion. This film does not regard the boys as part of a socio-scientific category and exploits there cases to come up with a policy claim. Even more importantly, it does not give us the comfort of giving us some numbers so that we can begin to understand and come up with solutions. The reason is that what we see there has much more to do with giving people whom we barely hear the chance to share just a tiny bit of their world and much less with the Western viewer who wants to understand whats going on so that he or she can start to come up with a solution. When we hear from an area like this it is usually through an NGO which uses such stories to advocate for a certain program. It is almost impossible to see or hear stories without a great moral at the end. The great achievement of this (often heartbreaking) film derives from the fact that it does not do that. Instead it documents a very short episode of a few people's lives. As such it is much truer to the essence of a documentary, I believe. Yet I would not dare to say that what we saw was an authentic documentation of life there. We barely saw any women but that is surely due to the cultural circumstances. I like the fact that the camera does not intrude into people's houses. First, it is a matter of respect, no matter how valuable or interesting one considers what is inside. What we see there is not human data, waited to be evaluated by a Western viewer. We see human beings and even if we might not approve with many of them, it is their right not to let their world be intruded by a camera team which makes a film that will be seen by people miles away from them. Secondly, I would have severely doubted the sincerity of the material if I would have seen even more intimate scenes. I almost felt uncomfortable and like an intruder when I saw these reunions. I wonder how the cameraman felt. Sometimes when among the kids, it felt as if the camera was held by one of the kids. I liked that. The kids in general gave me a very disturbing feeling though. I saw children who were robbed of their childhoods though this is only my impression. The things they talked about and the way they organized hierarchies seemed like they were much older. I don't know why but because of the things they said, I sometimes felt cheated, as if what they were saying was not coming from them. But that might just show how little I know about social reality under these circumstances. Pakistan is said to be a "tough" country. I think as far as what we saw is concerned this statement seems very true. Life in the foundation seemed cruel for the kids. But we can only assume what living with their families must have been like. I take my hat off to the people who made that film, the people working at the Ethi foundation, the boys who volunteered so bravely for this film and I am grateful to the producers for not ruining it either with a cheap moral at the end of it or by giving us the comfort of allegedly understanding what we see. If there was a lesson it might be that this film makes us realize that we probably understand a lot less than we think we do.

Edgar Soberon Torchia Heartbreaking portrait of Pakistani kids in Karachi, who have run away from home, were detained by authorities or got lost, and who were rescued by a humanitarian who created a surrogate home until their cases are solved, although a few of them stay and literally grow up there. I am not being sentimental. It is just very sad watching kids cry because they do not want to go back home, or the coldness of their families when they are brought back. I do not understand why people ask for more information. What for? Are they going to create a world organization to help those kids or what? Or just to be informed and converse about it? This film is about those kids, and what is remarkable about it is that it gives them voice, it is they who talk and communicate with us. In the end what I feel is important about "These Birds Walk" is the state of the world, of which we are all responsible.

westsideschl What was shown was worth a higher rating, but what they failed to show brings it down to five. They failed to substantiate through interviews, research or data the level of young male isolation, abuse and poverty and the resulting outcomes within Pakistan. Out of "courtesy" and privacy they did not show many scenes, such as inside homes, that would have led to a better and more objective understanding of conditions. For those of us in the rest of the world who view this documentary an objective framework would help in understanding severity and scope. They also, for similar reasons, did not show film of females who as we all know undergo much more severe abuse.

JustCuriosity These Birds Walk was very well-received at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. Some members of the audience were actually crying at the end of the film. This loving filmed documentary follows young boys – most of whom are runaways – at a boy's home in Karachi, Pakistan. The directors did a beautiful job of creating an emotional film that shows Americans what this sort of poverty is really like. The absence of any Pakistani institutions to take responsibility for these boys' welfare is striking to those watching this film through Western eyes. The directors manage to capture some very intimate scenes of the boys that present them in very human ways much like young boys anywhere. It also shows the great piety that they have learned at an early age. The one criticism that can be made of the film is that the cinema verite style provides the audience with little context so that with no narration certain details may be misunderstood. Some context on the nature of poverty, social structure, religion, and government would help those who know little about Pakistan gain a better understanding of what they are seeing. Otherwise, These Birds Walk offers us a powerful window into a faraway and often poorly understood part of the world.