DIRECTOR STATEMENT

On the surface this is a gentle film that deals with a father that is unable to express his love towards his son and a little boy who lacks self-esteem and confidence in his own abilities. Through the journey the father helps the son to find self-confidence while the son inspires the father to communicate his love for him.

Inspired by the haunting photograph taken by Jean-Marc Bouju I was emotionally drawn into the world of the little boy and the father. This is a deeply personal film exploring my phobia of not being a good mentor to my own first-born child. How would I try to preserve my child’s innocence in such dire circumstances? Nobody knows what happened to that Father and Son in the Photo that inspired this film. Their story is an archetype for all the civilians that have suffered in wars. The journey of the Father and Son is in the mould of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s journey in the HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES. Shadows that are threshold guardians become shape shifters. The archetype Father becomes the Hero boy’s Mentor just like Merlin was with King Arthur until this film reaches its climax.

The story takes place in the backdrop of our real world: a world that is griped by the war on terror, in what appears to be a clash of cultures: western values being defended against resurgent Islam. A world where innocence is easily lost as we are becoming increasingly desensitised to violence by the constant bombardment in the mass media of terrorist attacks. For most of us, we trivialise it as yet another day in Baghdad or Afghanistan, too remote to affect us.

Even though it is just another day, that day becomes a personal tragedy when the killings we see in the media involve someone we know. All of a sudden that tragedy that may have taken place in a terrorist attack in Bali, London, Madrid, Mumbai, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, World Trade Centre has a huge emotional significance for us.  But is the death or suffering of someone unknown to us any less significant than if we knew him or her? This question drives the narrative subtext and emotional through line of this film.
      
The film is laden with metaphors (poetic and religious) and moments of surrealism to draw the audience into the innocent world of the child that exists as part of a larger more brutal world that surrounds him. Tight almost claustrophobic framing when the father and son share their most intimate moments juxtaposes wide and long shots when both the father and son’s very existence (and the child’s innocence) is threatened most.

It is an upside down world, a prisoner of war camp where they are never free. The only freedom they have is the precious moments they share with each other, daring to steal time, praying that the next moment together will not be their last.

I have tried to compress the world of the captive and the world of the captor in a short time frame, conveying the suffering on both sides. In doing so I have deliberately put the audience into the mind and psyche of an anti-hero and reversed the role of the established protagonists. This has been an attempt to impart empathy to the anti-hero Father we are confronted with. We now experience an epiphany in the shared humanity of someone we are normally led to believe is an enemy living in a foreign land. Magical Realism helps to connect us with the child’s innocence. Their journey now becomes our journey.

This film is an allegory of our world, where innocence has become a relic of the past. It is a spiritual calling for a parent to always love and guide their child.  Some stories should never be forgotten.