Canary Season (1993): cast, story & where to watch

Released in 1993, Canary Season is a drama film directed by Evgeni Mihailov, running about 128 minutes.

What it’s about. It's 1980. Malin is fatherless, angry, and in trouble. At 20, he's spent a year in jail for assaulting a lover of Lily, his mother. In her desk he finds a soldier's photograph and assumes he's found his father. He confronts the man, now a teacher, and gets nowhere. At home again, he mocks his mother. Finally, she tells him her grim story, from the year before his birth. We see a people's court, where Lily's parents seek justice for their grandchild to be. We follow Lily to a prison camp, to the city where she's told to inform on the only person who's been kind, to an asylum, and finally to her current poverty and loneliness. How will Malin respond to these revelations?

Who’s in it. Canary Season stars Paraskeva Djukelova as Young Lily, Plamena Getova as Old Lily, Michail Alexandrov as Young Marin and Petar Popyordanov as Ivan, Father of Malin, among others.

How it landed. With an audience score of 9.5/10, Canary Season sits among the best-reviewed titles in the catalogue.

Where to watch. Streaming options change often. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch Canary Season page.

If you liked it. Fans of Canary Season tend to enjoy The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, Schindler's List and The Godfather Part II.