A Bird Without Feet
The film begins with this quote by Audre Lorde, "Wherever the bird with no feet flew, she found trees with no limbs." In this film, Alike is a young woman who desires to express herself fully as she knows she is a lesbian but keeps having to hide it from her family. The quote represents how she is different than all the rest and because of that she has no place to find rest.
Identity
Identity is the focus of this film. Alike knows who she is, and she desires to express herself from her identity. And as she does throughout the film she continues to get knocked down, by Bina and her mother in particular. But her getting pushed down doesn't cause her to conceal her identity even further, instead it causes her to claim exactly who she is and walk boldly into life knowing and being who she is.
Choosing
Alike tells her father that she isn't running away from her mother, she's choosing. She is choosing her life, to live it her way. She has been given a new perspective on her life and she can see that she has the power to choose her life, even to forgive her mother and to love her when she isn't loved back.
