“Father”, interview with director Tereza Nvotová

At 82th Venice Film Festival FRED Film Radio interviewed director Tereza Nvotová to talk about “Father”, screening in competition in Orizzonti section.

The theme of judgment

While watching “Father”, you may often feel a strong empathy for the protagonists, especially the father, who must deal with the guilt of his daughter’s death. But at the same time, many other people close to the couple, or the press, are quick to judge the man for his forgetfulness. “I think the judgment and blame is very natural for people because if they don’t blame and judge, which is terrible, they would have to admit that they are also capable of such tragic mistakes”, explain Tereza Nvotová. “I think by nature we don’t want to feel that we can do wrong. We want to feel like we are good people and we do everything right, so we don’t want to even for a little bit accept the possibility that even I can do terrible things, not the way that I want to do it, but by accident as it happened to this man. They just see the headline and they go and think he’s a murderer. This is also why I made this movie. I wanted to show people the inner perspective, the subjective”.

Transforming a true story into a cinematic narrative

“Father” is inspired by a true story that happened to a friend of co-screenwriter Dusan Budzak. The film chooses to tell it from a different perspective, focusing not on the tragedy itself, but on the moments when the characters lose control and must deal with the consequences of an impossible loss, transforming a true story into a cinematic narrative. “I didn’t think I could even make this movie, I felt it was too tragic. I didn’t know how to do it or how somebody would watch it for an hour and a half”, says Tereza Nvotová. “But then, when I met Dusan, he told me this story from this different perspective and that was really the turn for me because I saw the story in a different way and I had to accept that I could be in his position, which was hard for me. It took some time, but then I found a way to make it from this subjective perspective by these long shots. For me the story and the form of the film are not divided. And that’s why I decided to make the movie in these very long takes where the time really goes in a different way that immediately connects you with the character”.

An emotionally and technically demanding film

How did the director guide Milan Ondrík and Dominika Moravkova on this emotional journey, which also required great technical concentration given that the film was shot in long takes? “I knew that I needed the most truthful actors that are also deep as people, because it’s not only acting and the ability to create this emotion in you. You have to be able to have that. I knew that these two actors had to be in the movie and luckily they wanted to do it and then we were meeting a lot before we even started shooting”, explains Tereza Nvotová. “We had this sort of like a safe circle where only three of us were sitting and reading the script and talking and sharing our own stories and this was the most important process to kind of nail down the little moments so on the set we already knew what was happening inside and the set direction was more technical”.

Plot