Je suis né d'une cigogne

The reviewer in Film de France remarked that with its themes like absurdity and nonconformity, making use of characters like a speaking stork,[3] and also its filming techniques like jump cuts and multiple exposures, the film feels like "a blatant homage to the works of Jean-Luc Godard", and the plot "looks like a crazy mélange of Godard's À bout de souffle, Pierrot le Fou and Weekend".[2] In the reviewer's opinion, Gatlif has overdone these techniques, leading to the film's ending up "far more substantial and worthy than a shameless appropriation of another director's technique".[2] ACiD remarked that with his boldness and unconventional style, Gatlif has started a new New Wave trend, which would serve as a notice for both amateur filmmakers and professional film-makers.[3] Chronic'art remarked that the film can be placed between the worse and the better among the works inspired by Godard. Though the filming techniques are similar to Godard's, the film falls short in its dealing with the unconventional themes, avoiding providing solutions, and rather ending up being a mere "passive acquiescence" reflecting on the works of revolutionaries of the era, which is far from rising up to revolt as one would expect in a Godard movie.[5] Time Out London was also critical of Gatlif's attempts at Godard, calling it "offbeam".[4]

The film is packed with a number of references to "social issues and political theory", especially on the border crossings.[2][4] Yet a reviewer for Films de France found it to be not so "heavy", thanks to the unintentional flaws in the techniques used.[2] He observed that the film treats them using "black comedy and surrealism". The stork character is a "metaphorical stand-in" for the illegal immigrant, he added. "While birds can cross international borders at ease, human beings generally cannot": Tony Gatlif deals with this lesser freedom that human beings possess with his "well intended irony", using the stork.[2] On forging the passports for the stork and the need for 'papers' while crossing borders, Gatlif said mockingly in an interview that "in France there are 1.5 million birds and 1.5 million foreigners. The difference is that the bird is free, because he has no ID. He flies to Africa, to the wealthy countries and to developing countries. It makes no difference to him. He is an alien everywhere".[6] ACiD called this "poetic"[3] while Time Out London found it "woolly and unilluminating".[4] The word cigogne is pronounced very similarly to tsigane which is one of the words used for Romani people. There are also a number of "in-jokes and references to French cinema" which a viewer might miss in the first viewing, observed Films de France, citing scenes such as one which is a parody on an awards ceremony and one of an austere reviewer "rubber stamping films with trite stock phrases".[2] Chronic'art found these scenes heavy because of the limitations of a work in which the director "at his pleasure distills his personal tastes".[5]

The film's references to revolutionaries like Karl Marx, Che Guevara and Guy Debord coupled with Godard's techniques give it a 1970s feel, observed a reviewer for Télérama. Though it re-lives the avant-garde of the past, it is a bit retro for the current times, which bores its viewers, he added.[7] Les Inrockuptibles also found the theme "dated", adding that it could very well have been a documentary by some non-profit organisation like GISTI.[8] Chronic'art remarked that mere quoting of Marx or Che Guevera would not make the film, with its rather common theme of socially disillusioned, unemployed youth in revolt, achieve anything. It also called the depictions of idiotic CRS personnel and militant NF activists clichéd.[5]

Time Out London called it "far more fanciful and pretentitious" than Gatlif's earlier films and also regarded Gatlif's treatment of Godard as a failure.[4] ACiD gave it a positive review, lauding Gatlif's bold depiction of absurdity. Romain Duris and Rona Hartner's performance was described as "beautiful" and as complemented by Ouassini Embarek's, which was described as "brilliant". In summary, the reviewer suggested the film be called "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", citing the mixed topics dealt with, and added that it takes the viewers "beyond the real, beyond the borders and everything one can imagine".[3]

A review by James Travers forFilms de France called it the "most unconventional" of all road movies, with its "insanely anarchic portrait of adolescent rebellion", adding that it is an "ingenious parable of social exclusion and immigration in an uncaring society". Travers also wrote that the film's editing and narrative techniques turn into a plus, making it "refreshingly fresh and original", adding that the "patchwork narrative style" suits the rebellious nature of the characters very well. Owing to the unconventionality of the film, Louna's disappearance from the plot in the middle does not look very obvious, he added.[2] Les Inrockuptibles called it a "tragicomic fable on the notions of borders and free movement of people" and added that the film's use of comedy and disjunctive narrative style is only partially successful. Though not conventionally beautiful, the film impresses the viewers with its "energy, boldness and humor in places when it doesn't leave them stranded", the reviewer concluded.[8]