Directed by Ellen Fiske, Ellinor Hallin • Documentary • 2019 • 86 minutes

The story of Gemma, a teenage troublemaker, growing up in a world of pigeons and violence. From childhood to motherhood, her life unfolds as innocent games turn towards serious crime. Directors Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin paint an intimate portrait of a fading Scottish town, and of Gemma as she comes of age in a place scarred by society’s broken promises.

—Best Documentary, Tribeca Film Festival 2019

“Shot with an eye and ear for poetry… Ellen Fiske and Ellinor Hallin’s superb documentary SCHEME BIRDS is an alternately lyrical and gut-punching coming-of-age study in which girls like Gemma become women — and wounded women at that — altogether too soon.” —Guy Lodge, Variety

“Extraordinary! Intimate and wrenchingly affecting” —Screen International