Direction: Srdan Golubovic
Country: Serbia
From Srdan Golubovic, the Serbian director of The Trap (2007) and Circles (2013), comes Father, another inspiring move made by a qualified filmmaker who deserves wider recognition. This engrossing and horrifically authentic drama is likely the deepest felt and most emotionally affecting of his works.
The story follows, Nikola (Goran Bogdan), a day worker from a small Serbian town who is caught in despair in the possibility of losing his two children to social services. Poverty, hunger, and the inability to collect the financial compensation he was entitled to when fired two years before, made his wife protest in a vehement and radical way, leading to agonizing circumstances. Against corruption and injustice, the humiliated, penurious Nikola decides to cross Serbia on foot toward Belgrade, where he intends to appeal.
There is so much going on in Father. The observation and exposition of the situation described, as well as the honesty with which it is told, make this moving story penetrate our hearts. So much persistence is needed to earn a crumb from an exploitative system that simply doesn’t do its job. And then, the final blow extends from political corrosion to the society and the individual.
The film is remarkably interpreted by Bogdan, and well seconded by Boris Isakovic, who manages to get on our nerves while impersonating the condescending head of the local social service department. Few films can be said to truly capture the silent struggle of a father and the love for his family. However, be advised that even refusing to discard hope, Father is not the uplifting type at all.
