Pecking Order | Little White Lies

Peck­ing Order

28 Sep 2017 / Released: 29 Sep 2017

Words by Isobel Raphael

Directed by Slavko Martinov

Starring Bob Dawber, Doug Bain, and Sarah Bunton

An elderly woman holding a chicken and smiling brightly in front of a wooden building.
An elderly woman holding a chicken and smiling brightly in front of a wooden building.
1

Anticipation.

It’s a film about – let me get this right – members of a New Zealand Poultry Club?

4

Enjoyment.

Really quite delightful.

3

In Retrospect.

Never judge a film by its cover.

This charm­ing doc­u­men­tary exam­ines the wacky world of obses­sive com­pet­i­tive chick­en breed­ing in New Zealand.

Slavko Martinov’s film places its tongue firm­ly in cheek with its approach to the lives of New Zealand’s most ded­i­cat­ed poul­try breed­ers. As the pol­i­tics of the Christchurch Ban­tam and Pigeon Club descends into chaos, and antic­i­pa­tion mount­ing over the upcom­ing Nation­al Poul­try Show, there is more ten­sion cre­at­ed than one could ever believe pos­si­ble in a film about birdie bub­ble baths and blow dries.

Mar­ti­nov draws upon the eccen­tric­i­ty of his char­ac­ters with­out descend­ing into mock­ery. There is a sen­si­tiv­i­ty in the camera’s rela­tion­ship with each indi­vid­ual, evi­dent in lin­ger­ing shots that feel gen­tle and atten­tive. One par­tic­u­lar­ly com­mit­ted chick­en breed­er, a gap-toothed Bri­an Glassey, gives us an insight into the stren­u­ous life of chick­en rearing.

He admits, almost joy­ful­ly, that no woman would ever have him, as he is too ded­i­cat­ed to his poul­try. That’s life in the fast lane” says Glassey, com­plete­ly unper­turbed by find­ing a tiny chick car­cass on his wan­der around a coup. And it goes with­out say­ing that many more chick­ens don’t make the final cut, either end­ing up in chick­ie heav­en” or as pot roast.

Nation­al Poul­try Show com­pe­ti­tion judge, Ian Sel­by, has stan­dards of poul­try per­fec­tion that instil a ruth­less­ly com­pet­i­tive rival­ry in con­tes­tants. In a more sin­is­ter moment, it is sug­gest­ed that par­tic­i­pants may poi­son each oth­ers’ birds, so set are they are on win­ning. Sel­by sin­cere­ly pro­claims him­self to be the luck­i­est man in the world’ hav­ing had the aston­ish­ing deter­mi­na­tion to mem­o­rise the bible-like New Zealand Poul­try Standard’.

How­ev­er curi­ous this film is, Mar­ti­nov touch­es on uni­ver­sal themes of pas­sion and ded­i­ca­tion. The tip­ping from obses­sion into the down­right crazy is com­i­cal only because it is so relat­able. As one chick­en enthu­si­ast tells us, It’s like alco­holism. When you love some­thing you won’t give it up.” It is a cel­e­bra­tion of cul­tur­al diver­si­ty and sup­ports the notion that every way of life deserves a plat­form in which to be respect­ful­ly represented.

The film is instant­ly absorb­ing and, best of all, unex­pect­ed­ly so. Do not make the mis­take of being per­turbed by the obscure sub­ject mat­ter – you would have to be pret­ty hard of heart not to enjoy this.

You might like

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.