David Pirtskhalava's short film "Father" (2015) is the director's debut work. Dozens of films with similar (or approximate) names have been shot worldwide. Fatherhood or fatherlessness is the main topic of many works. David Pirtskhalava also entered cinema with such an important statement and so interestingly that in 2015, the jury of the Locarno Film Festival acknowledged his film as one of the best and awarded him a prize.
The film is called "Father," but in fact the story is about fatherlessness, the pain and consequences of fatherlessness, the distortion of the world due to his departure from home and the restored wholeness because of his return.
Prior to that, there was a different type and style of "non-conflict" paternalism in Georgian cinema. Leaving aside the father-leaders of the nation, children had no or little confrontations with father-heroes or anti-heroes who were fighting ("Soldier's Father") or "businessman" ("When Almonds Blossomed"). The conflict and pain caused by fatherlessness echoes and speaks of post-Soviet times. When reality returns to cinema.
In the 1990s, the relationship between fathers and sons is no longer sterile, it becomes multifaceted - bitter, sweet, contradictory, critical, hostile and friendly. Fathers also become different.
The line of disobedient, creative, heroic, monumental, strong, man of faith and against-the-flow fathers is broken, and faithless, supportless fathers appear, who succumb to wars, drugs, despair, creative crisis, alienation from the new times and create almost nothing or very little of value for a whole decade.
The cinema generation of the 21st century had to stand up without a father. Only on the example of grandfathers (grandmothers) and great grandfathers. And it is in this era of "fatherlessness" that David Pirtskhalava makes a film about the fall and rise of fathers, the disappearance of the hero father image and his rehabilitation, in which fathers are helped by their children.
The father of two brothers, Nika and Lado (Sandro Kalandadze and Mamuka Kiladze) had left home and did not appear for five years. The time and space between father and children became a cold wall. The mother had to raise her children alone. The mother's image in the film is equated with order, complete understanding and respect. Mother is in harmony with the boys, she creates harmony between the brothers and the outside world as well.
Alienation and ambiguity do not exist in the brothers. The dedication of one parent and the disappearance of the other have welded their brotherhood together. But this is one side of the boys' life. The other side is nocturnal and dark. It is empty, hopeless, staggering on the edge of a knife. It was she who had to be filled by his father, who disappeared and did not appear for years.
The film begins with the boys's conversation with their father who they haven't seen for five years. The separation created a chasm of alienation between the father and sons. They have nothing to talk about anymore. The father is so distanced from his children that he does not even remember their age. The father brings a toy for his grown-up boys as a gift - phosphorescent stars, which, presumably, he could neither reach nor help his children reach.
Toy stars can be read as a sad metaphor of broken dreams, failure to achieve the set goals. The father gives the stars as a gift and seems to share a vague faith and hope for the future with his children, a hope that he does not have and a future towards which his children are nihilistic. Skeptical attitude towards the future is reflected in their choices. The boys make a living by stealing tape recorders from cars. This "profession" in their life was born by fatherlessness. Without a father, the world seems to leave no space for the realization of dreams and will turn into a battlefield for its own survival by all means.
The action of the film takes place on the outskirts of a big city. Its background and environment (artist Guram Navrozashvili) tells about poverty, unemployment and lack of choice. In the beginning, the camera (operator Shalva Sokurashvili) is static, objective, neutral towards the film characters, and in the other half of the film it becomes subjective and emotional. It completely repeats the characters’ emotional mood. The subjective camera makes the story even more real and dramatic. The audience seems to be moving along with the boys. He follows them to steal cars. He also becomes a participant and accomplice of this fact. Consequently, less moralistic. Moreover, the audience involuntarily wants Lado and Nika's robbery to end "successfully."
The action of the film takes place on the outskirts of a big city. Its background and environment (artist Guram Navrozashvili) tells about poverty, unemployment and lack of choice. In the beginning, the camera (operator Shalva Sokurashvili) is static, objective, neutral towards the film characters, and in the other half of the film it becomes subjective and emotional. It completely repeats the characters’ emotional mood. The subjective camera makes the story even more real and dramatic. The audience seems to be moving along with the boys. He follows them to steal cars. He also becomes a participant and accomplice of this fact. Consequently, less moralistic. Moreover, the audience involuntarily wants Lado and Nika's robbery to end "successfully."
The key episode is the confrontation between Lado and the owner of the burgled car (Vakho Chachanidze). The car's owner little son appears with him in the shot. The child who acts almost as a catalyst in the film. The audience can't even see him, only hears his voice - he threatens the thieves - you can't escape my father. The child believes in heroic fathers, in the invincibility of the father - the father is strong, the father will solve everything, no one can interfere with the father, he will straighten the distorted world and restore justice. This faith is embodied in the child, everything what the heroes of the film lost, and their father before them, and, along with them, entire generations in Georgia.
But the child’s father is different. He, and the audience with him, realizes that the problem is not in the tape recorder. It's about maintaining a strong father figure. Chachanidze's hero tries to save the child from great disappointment and return the stolen tape recorder with a relentless fight or an imitation of this fight, so he continues to chase the thieves.
Lado tries to protect his younger brother and when the car owner chases him, he shoots. In this episode, the audience is waiting for a tragedy. The hero died so that his son would not lose his father's faith, however, Pirtskhalava is more ironic than one could imagine. The director suddenly replaces the tragedy with a farce. Instead of the father who fell heroically in front of his opponent, we will see the father pissed with fear.
The father (fathers) have pissed. They were defeated in confronting the brutal reality. All illusions were swallowed up by the real world, the real conflict. Fathers, both in cinema and in life, were not ready for this. The image of the almighty father, if it existed anywhere, is completely destroyed in this episode of David Firtskhalava's film. The father is downcast and ashamed. He will not be able to rehabilitate himself. But he does not have the courage to admit his failure to his son. Therefore, instead of appearing wet and empty-handed with his son, he prefers to hide again. Fathers who have disappeared from their families may be hiding their disappointment from their children.
Lado and Nika's father may have escaped this shame. Lado feels this and appears as the savior of other people's fatherhood. He returns the stolen tape recorder to its owner. With this, he leaves the illusion of a strong father in force, keeps his image. The father is still the solver of all problems, so he can return to his son victorious.
With this gesture of Lado, the world is complete. The gap is being filled. Lado reconciles with his father. Catharsis is born. Stars appear in the dark world. The stars shine best only in the dark. Catharsis is not born only from tragedies, it seems that it can also be born from farce.
Eka Kukhalashvili,
film critic
