People often make rash decisions. They do something and don't even think about the consequences. The most important thing for them is to solve the existing problem at that moment and take a breath, not caring what the consequences may be. Sometimes they forget that there are no hopeless situations. The only irreversible state is death, dead people cannot be revived.
Fathers are the main problem – solvers in the family. Any obstacle harms their psyche. Sometimes it happens that the wife obliges her husband to take care of her and the child, and she herself does nothing or can’t do anything for it. Then fathers sometimes hit one wall, sometimes another, trying to create a better future for their children and not to show what it is like when someone else has what you have. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. They are so attached to their own family that they make irreparable mistakes.
Dato, the main character of the film "Eraser“ (2018) directed by Davit (Data) Pirtskhalava is in agony. It's winter, it's cold, he has a child who needs warmth and he wants to find a way out. He steals a fence from a high floor of a building, brings it home and warms his son. Doing so, he thinks that he has solved the problem and is at peace. All this, unfortunately, does not end so peacefully. His son's classmate Akaki falls from the building and dies. Here he is overcome by regret or shame, or both, and goes to condole. He did not expect that his seemingly harmless theft to save his family would lead to such a result.
Dato's character is considered in two ways. On one side stands a man who has committed two criminal offenses. The first is theft and the other – killing by negligence. He didn't go somewhere else to get firewood, he didn't cut branches from a nearby tree, he didn't try hard to stock up firewood until winter. He did know that he had neither a renovated house nor central heating. It was also clear that the winter would be severe. He acted recklessly and sacrificed another person’s life. Dato's action is like an unknown equation that always has a solution. It was easy to guess that someone would fall from the high floor of the building without a fence. His son could have been in Akaki's place too. Dato’s son and Akaki were friends. It is quite possible that during one of the visits to the building it was he who might have fallen and not Akaki. Dato didn't even think about that. He just saw the problem and solved it.
On the other side of the character is a father whose son is cold because of the freezing winter. Imagine you have a family, you have a house to repair, in which the cold is coming from all sides, and you don't know what to do anymore. You will remember that there is a fence on some floor of your son's friend's house that will keep you warm. You remove this fence and neither you nor your child will be cold for a few hours. At a glance, the problem is solved but in reality, not everything is like that. By superficially solving one problem, another, relatively larger obstacle appears, which may not be solved. The person in agony woke up only when he went to the funeral and saw deceased Akaki. It was then that he realized what he had done.
"Eraser" is a film that teaches the audience morality. It is a reflection of what follows reckless steps, how life will continue if you don't understand what may follow the action, you won't think for others, you won't look ahead of yourself. The earth does not revolve around only one person. The film is not only about Dato and his family. It is about everything. Tomorrow you can be Dato and make the same mistake, the day after tomorrow it might be someone else. That is until you wake up from the chaos.
Dato was standing thoughtfully at Akaki's house, thinking about what he had done. If he had a magic eraser, he probably would have erased that day from his life altogether. I wonder what he would do if he could go back in time – wouldn't he steal the fence? Would he steal firewood from somewhere else? Would he act prudently and prepare for winter? The answers to the questions are difficult to give. Dato's character is not visible. No one knows what kind of person he is, only his regret or fear can be obvious.
It would be nice if the audience knew what preceded all this. How did Dato get to the point where he stole the fence? Did he try to get a job and failed? Couldn't he borrow money to buy firewood? It might have been better for him to burn the bed, sleep on the floor and not take the fence! The story seems to lack a beginning. It begins with a direct action, which is followed by a certain result, and the rest of the details are only parts of that result. Although Dato did everything for his son, it is impossible to justify him. He could find another solution. Due to the shortness of the plot and the presented conclusion, it is almost impossible to empathize with the character. How long could that fence be sufficient for him, half a day? Probably not even that.
After this affair, it dawned a little differently. There was neither firewood nor Akaki. An iron fence was constructed in the building. No one would get injured now. It is bad that the fence has not been changed until now. In this case, neither the character would be able to steal it, nor would the child fall over.
Dato came to visit Akaki's father. He sat face to face and looked into his eyes. Why didn't he tell him that what had happened was his fault? Didn't he have the courage? Or did he think there was no point in confessing? He was just afraid. He gave the father something left from Akaki, an eraser, a sign of erasing his sadness. If an eraser could wipe out the pain along with a wrongly written assignment, the world might be different now.
Barbare Kalaijishvili
