Otac
After Nikola’s wife has attempted suicide, the casual labourer’s two children are taken away from him and placed with foster parents. A temporary arrangement, it is alleged. However, following an assessment of Nikola’s housing conditions, the head of the social welfare office in their small Serbian village decides that Nikola is too poor to provide an adequate living environment for his children. The reticent Nikola decides to lodge a complaint with the Ministry of Social Affairs in Belgrade. He is determined to cover the 300 kilometres to the capital on foot. In this way, he intends to show the authorities how far he is willing to go for his children – literally. (Festival information, Berlinale 2020; photo: © Maja Medic/Film House Baš Čelik)
The road movie is based on a true story of a father who walks 300 km from the province to the Serbian capital to show his desperate will to get back his children. Because of the precarious economical family situation and a desperate irrational act of his wife the children were taken care of by the youth welfare office.
The film shows that the Serbian system is still stuck in socialistic arbitrariness, corrupt structures, a strong urban-rural divide and an unbearable neglect of the whole country. Yet the father manages to deal with the catastrophic tension, his feelings of guilt and the challenges on his way to Belgrade in a reserved and non-violent way. In the character of the father the jury recognizes an example of an attitude of persistence and search for justice without hurting anyone else. Thus the father becomes a hero without considering himself as a hero at all (photo: © Maja Medic/Film House Baš Čelik).