TIFF Review: “The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs”

The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs (Èlia Gasull Balada/Matteo Norzi, 2026) 4½ out of 5 stars

Every artist who agrees to have a movie made about them should be so lucky as to have their work photographed in as exquisite a manner as that used by Èlia Gasull Balada and Matteo Norzi (Icaros: A Vision) for the canvases of Sara Flores. In The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs, they craft a loving portrait of their septuagenarian subject, an indigenous woman from Peru who adapts the kené designs of her Shipibo-Conibo people within carefully constructed frames, and has now, late in life, become something of an international sensation. She’s very big in New York and Paris, if not yet in Peru.

No matter where Flores’ travels take her, the directors return, time and again, to her home in the Amazon basin, magnificent to behold. She takes strength and inspiration from the nature around her, as well from her pet tamarin monkey, Aminish, and extended family, which includes daughters and their children. Unfortunately, this stunning world is now far from pristine and is disappearing more every day, courtesy of illegal logging tolerated by the country’s central government.

The documentary is therefore not only a showcase of Flores’ œuvre, but also of the local pushback to out-of-control deforestation. Thanks to her present-day success, Flores is able to fund some of the activist efforts, including a group trip to the United Nations. Without a commitment from Lima, however, it’s an open question whether anything will stop.

It’s fascinating to watch Flores navigate the Parisian fashion milieu. For one thing, everyone in it seems exceptionally tall, and she is anything but, and then there is the incongruity of her abiding humility seen side by side with the ostentatious materialism of that environment. Still, the fact that the House of Dior wants her designs for one of their Lady Dior handbags is pretty cool (and, one hopes, remunerative).

Sadly, fame breeds resentment, and when one of Flores’ neighbors apparently curses her, she worries about whether that is causing her arthritis and headaches. It’s most likely the normal process of aging, though, which also occasionally causes her to lose her train of thought. Whatever the reasons for her physical and mental ailments, most folks would be grateful to be as active as Flores is once in their seventies.

The movie ends with Flores’ first solo exhibit in Lima. There’s a large crowd, finally granting her the home-turf recognition she deserves. Perhaps this reception will allow her voice to be widely heard on the important issues she champions. Given the corruption we have earlier seen, I doubt it, but at least more people can appreciate the beauty of her art, and of this movie.

Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Chris Reed is the editor of Film Festival Today. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.