Father

Since the advent of society, as “an organized community sharing the same geographical or social territory, composed of individuals that are conscious of their identity and collective continuity”, the individual saw its life conditioned by the choices and tastes — often completely dictated by political factors — of its own tribe, family, country, continent, etc. This dependence would seem happen and growing worse especially in our post-industrial time, “dominated by information, services and high technology” — and by the crisis nightmare —, in which the suspicion that the “sacred integrity” of our umbilical cord with the nearest people to us — possibly parents —, is precisely encouraged by society itself, is more and more tangible, despite the obvious damages.

In a similar organization, some words as freedom, just for example, become campaign slogans by the ambiguous content, finding the peak in some recent commercials which promote “the freedom of not having to choose”.

With his animated film, Padre — Father —, Santiago “Bou” Grasso intends to speak about the deep relationship between public and private life and how political contexts affect people’s life for generations:

“I’m interested in the dialectic of how the external forces and inner power relations shape us and determine the persons we are, either in our country, our society or inside our own home. I’m part of a generation which has inherited a tragic past, in my country in particular and in Latin America in general.
We are the sons of the dictatorships, we didn’t live them in flesh, but we live the consequences of what happened. We were born in a deeply wounded society, not only in economical and political terms, but also in the fear, the frustration we received from our previous generations. So now that we have strong democracies, we can rethink our past to understand our present and give shape to our future.”

Argentina 1983. A woman is devoting herself to the care of her sick father, a retired military commander. Her daily routine is set by the ticking of a clock which accompanies all of her tasks. As days go by, the woman withdraws more and more into her own little world, refusing to face reality.

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