You could follow the first half of “Firebird” even if you didn’t speak English, because all of the meanings are being expressed visually rather than in dialogue. When Sergey is driving a truck with Roman in the passenger seat, we see trees going by on the windshield but only on Roman’s side of the screen, an expressive visual idea that is all the more effective for not being lingered on. There is a scene in which Sergey and Roman are in a darkroom developing photographs together, where Mäekivi casts an orange glow over their faces broken only by the red of their lips, a very unusual color combination that greatly aids the feeling of a building romantic tension between them. The dominant creative force in this first section of “Firebird” is cinematographer Mait Mäekivi, who gives the blues and reds of the uniforms and the flags on display an early-Technicolor sort of gleam. Rebane keeps things going at a lightly simmering pace as we watch Sergey falling more and more in love with Roman the actors speak English with light Russian accents, but words have very little importance here. Billy Eichner Makes History at CinemaCon With First Look at LGBTQ+ Rom-Com ‘Bros’
