project film school

Father: 2/13/07
dir. Istvan Szabo

this was my introduction to eastern-european cinema that dealt with the after-effects of WWII. father, specifically dealt with hungary, the war and the following revolution in 1956.

what struck me about the film was how it functioned and succeeded as a film purely about shedding one's childhood, in this case through an acceptance of family (the main character finally coming to terms with who his father really was). beyond that though, the film has a strong political message about identity and how we view the past.

the innocence of tako and his entertaining recreations of his father create a world that can overlook the politics of yesterday (WWII) and also tell a story that functions outside of the political realm.

the switch to tako as a young adult, brings with it the lose of said innocence and a direct confrontation with the politics of the day, which in one scene is seen through a recreation of events related to WWII.

this film, like many european films that use political metaphor, the story of a person that represents a larger historical idea, makes me think even more about the lack of such storytelling in this country : we seem set on either films that are overtly political (ie fahrenheit 911) or only story (pretty much every narrative in the mainstream).

it seems we are not processing our past and relating it to the future...i hope one day we will wise up and use cinema as a way to both entertain and evaluate our actions.