To Die into a Bird



Film | 20 min | Work-in-progress | Dartmoor National Park | UK


A fairytale. A music epic. A visual hybrid of dance, sculpture, song, and ritual.

To Die into a Bird is a myth whispered by wind and stream—an offering to the spirit of Dartmoor’s ancient forest and the brittle body of death. Written and directed by Anna Kushnerova, this 20-minute film unfolds through the voices and movements of earthly folk, spectral guardians, and shape-shifters, choreographed by lichen, granite, and grief.

Emerging from moss-wrapped groves and the fungal breathing of the moor, the story tells of a Bird that eats Human forms. Of coffin roads veined through fern valleys. Of ancestors carried in salt. It is a tale received through place, composted through body, and spoken in the tongue of rot and ritual.

The film traverses death not as an end, but as sanctuary—a porous zone of shapelessness where we dissolve into canopy, string-of-sausages lichen, and witches’ whiskers. Through decomposition, we trespass the human, reclaiming the kinship between body and cosmos, spirit and soil.
Filmed with the participation of local artists and the ancient earths of Dartmoor.

Written and Directed: Anna Kushnerova

Cinematography: Raúl Bartolomé, Ben Jeans Houghton

Earthly Folk: Hilary Kneale, Miguel Valentini, Sofia Kovarich, Dan Faberoff, Lies Van Hee, Bodhi, Tim Russell

The Corpse: Elise Gettliffe

Guardians of the Aftreworld: Ken Mai, Romain Brau, Jamus Wood, David Lautier, Jasper Salomonsz, Miguel Valentini

Sycamore Guardian: Tim Russell

Edit: Anna Kushnerova

Grading: Raúl Bartolomé

Sound Design: Dann Greysen

Production Sound: Anastasia Freygang

Vocal Recording: Inbetween Sounds Studio

Vocals: Ric Hollingbery

Narration: Fionn Davies Cox

On-set assistance: Becca Parkinson

Costume Design: Anna Kushnerova

Costume Assistance: Lena Morien

Woven Coffin: Eamonn Harnett





















MORE ON THE POETICS OF DEATH
Voices for Biological Decomposition and the Spilling of the Spirit into the Afterworld