The most promising part of Hibou is the introduction of the main character. The mild- mannered Rocky (Ramzy Bedia, also the movie's director and co-writer) is not merely overlooked socially, he is all but invisible. His co-workers forget he's there - literally; passers by fail to notice him; his boss doesn't hear him when he speaks to her.
One day, he wakes up to find an enormous owl perched in his living room. The astonished Rocky brings a photo of the bird to a pet shop, where the owner identifies it as a Grand Duke owl, but can offer no explanation of its presence. Rocky tries to shoo the owl out, with no success. He tries feeding it mice, which the bird declines.
Although it's never made clear, apparently we are meant to understand that being singled out by the owl somehow changes Rocky's self image. So far, it's a concept that might work. However, the story disintegrates at this point into a series of disjointed and silly subplots and brief comedy episodes, which seem to have very little to do with each other and which have no common theme or even consistency.
Rocky suddenly decides to begin wearing a giant owl costume everywhere he goes, for reasons which are not made clear. After multiple scenes of Rocky going here and there in his owl suit, apparently added for the comedic value of a giant owl turning up in unsuitable public places, he encounters a woman wearing a panda costume, and they form a romantic alliance. They seem to be meant for one another due to their mutual habit of going about dressed as giant animals.
The romance itself is a confusing and badly written series of trivial events, winding down into an attempt at summing up the entire story with little attention to continuity. Worst of all is the conclusion, in which elements of the story are given unexpected happy endings or strange plot twists, or else are revealed as being imaginary or false, all seemingly at random.
Add to all this the incidental fact that the movie's title was translated into English as "Owl You Need Is Love". Annoyingly bad, but the absurd title actually seems appropriate to the movie itself.
The only reason I'm giving Hibou four stars, rather than one or two, is because the performances were good, and the overall look of the movie interesting. Bedia, as a director, might be able to turn out a decent film if he either wrote a coherent story, or had someone else write his scripts for him.
One day, he wakes up to find an enormous owl perched in his living room. The astonished Rocky brings a photo of the bird to a pet shop, where the owner identifies it as a Grand Duke owl, but can offer no explanation of its presence. Rocky tries to shoo the owl out, with no success. He tries feeding it mice, which the bird declines.
Although it's never made clear, apparently we are meant to understand that being singled out by the owl somehow changes Rocky's self image. So far, it's a concept that might work. However, the story disintegrates at this point into a series of disjointed and silly subplots and brief comedy episodes, which seem to have very little to do with each other and which have no common theme or even consistency.
Rocky suddenly decides to begin wearing a giant owl costume everywhere he goes, for reasons which are not made clear. After multiple scenes of Rocky going here and there in his owl suit, apparently added for the comedic value of a giant owl turning up in unsuitable public places, he encounters a woman wearing a panda costume, and they form a romantic alliance. They seem to be meant for one another due to their mutual habit of going about dressed as giant animals.
The romance itself is a confusing and badly written series of trivial events, winding down into an attempt at summing up the entire story with little attention to continuity. Worst of all is the conclusion, in which elements of the story are given unexpected happy endings or strange plot twists, or else are revealed as being imaginary or false, all seemingly at random.
Add to all this the incidental fact that the movie's title was translated into English as "Owl You Need Is Love". Annoyingly bad, but the absurd title actually seems appropriate to the movie itself.
The only reason I'm giving Hibou four stars, rather than one or two, is because the performances were good, and the overall look of the movie interesting. Bedia, as a director, might be able to turn out a decent film if he either wrote a coherent story, or had someone else write his scripts for him.
