An enigmatic kind of extreme and polymorphous love unites the films of João Pedro Rodrigues, from the omnivorous desire that drives the restless hero of O Fantasma to the strange obsession that binds the unlikely couple in Odete and the unquenchable longing for an unobtainable romantic ideal that ultimately leads the long-suffering hero of To Die Like a Man to his tragic demise. In his eagerly awaited new film, Rodrigues explores a different kind of love through the fable of an ornithologist whose hunt for a rare species turns suddenly into a strange voyage of self-discovery and spiritual awakening. Although based loosely on the life and legend of Saint Anthony—who occupies a special place in Portuguese religion and popular culture—The Ornithologist invents a playfully blasphemous approach in which the saint’s life is a search for a decidedly unconventional devotion that refuses to separate the carnal and the spiritual. Leaving far behind the Lisbon intimately explored in the earlier films, The Ornithologist takes place largely in the lush forests of Trás-os-Montes, Portugal’s most remote region and the cradle of the folkloric imagination, giving meditative place to the region’s sublime landscapes and the watchful birds whose detached gaze the film adapts at key moments. Recalling Rodrigues’ own youthful study of ornithology, his latest film deepens a nuanced autobiographical thread that runs throughout his films, giving a rich personal dimension to the film’s questioning of the role in life’s journey of destiny and devotion, whether to self or other or to one’s chosen vocation.