The way back: doves in a buddhist temple

Title: The Way Back

Year:  2010

Director:    Peter Weir

Running time: 130 min.

Country: United States

Several prisoners in a Russian gulag manage to escape a make a trip of thousands of kilometers to their way to freedom. I enjoyed watching this adventure film with great shots and some intrepid doves. When the group of survivors reach an abandoned buddhist temple they decide to investigate the ruins.  

And this is when two doves and a pigeon suddenly appear from the ruins and fly away, startles, from the new visitors.

The dove silhouettes can be noticed at the bottom of the image.  

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: The way back. Starring moment: 1:14:20
• Pigeon activity: A small group of birds flying away when the protagonists arrive at the scene. 
• Symbolism:  Although there are some references to doves in buddhism, the use of doves and pigeons in this films seems to be more coincidental relating to wild animals that occupied an abandoned building. 
• Relevance: None. The birds do not interact with the protagonists of the films thus they do not influence the film plot. 
• Training level: Medium. It seems that they are trained animals released in the film scene. They perform well flying almost vertically in a narrow building.  

The winner of the fifth edition of Pigeon Quest

At PMDb we congratulate Chrissy as the winner of the fifth edition of Pigeon Quest. Congratulations on your fine pigeon-spotting performance. You can download a high-resolution image of your certificate here.

PMDb film and TV series visual index

Here is an link to at-a-glance visual list of the covers of films and TV series that have been posted so far. The list is ordered chronologically. Each image contains a link to the related post.

I have a much longer list (with tens of films) that have been reported but not reviewed yet - thank you very much to all the pigeon spotters and film contributors who have shared information with me. My plan is to gradually enrich the PMDb with these feathered findings.

Game of thrones: Arya Stark, the pigeon slayer

Title: Game of Thrones
Year: 2011 
Director: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Timothy Van Patten, Brian Kirk, Daniel Minahan, Alan Taylor
Running time: 55 min.

Country: United States
 

It is almost impossible to do not feel pity for Arya. She lost half of her family, she was forced to run away, living a life of poverty and, on top of that, she is surviving in an extremely violent environment. Any social worker from the Office of Child and Family Services would place her in a special protection program.

However, she also has a dark side, a cruel mind that not only thinks about revenge, but about pigeon carnage. Her violent actions were performed not in one, but several scenes during this tv series. In this entry we can see one of them, where this young girl is having fun beheading an innocent pigeon. The scene is shown below. No additional comments are necessary.

The poor pigeon is not aware of the great jeopardy that is coming.

Arya slaying an innocent pigeon.

The most tragic part of this story is Arya's face after this unfortunate training practice: she shows nothing, not shame, not  happiness, just a cold, inexpressive stare towards the dead bird. A pure gem for psychotherapists.  Arya, pigeons will never forget this offense.

Details of the pigeon starring 

• Source: Game of Thrones. Starring moment: 0:44:05
• Pigeon activity: It is a common pigeon belonging to the Game of Thrones' universe that has a fatal encounter with a bored killing machine eager to slash living forms with her sword. 
• Symbolism: Performing this action against a pigeon (one of the most harmless creatures on Earth - ignoring the dropping-related side effects or the intense cooing during the mating season-) is a clear example of how deranged the poor girl is. Definitely, not a good choice for babysitting.
• Relevance: For the poor pigeon character, high, because it is the end of the story for the animal. Looking at the bird's head size, it seems like a female pigeon. I hope that it is not the breeding season and there are no squabs waiting for her. 
• Training level: Low. The pigeon shows steely calm facing its final like the musicians of the Titanic. The difference is that here the iceberg has a sword.