“Nvotová’s cinematic language lifts the film to another level.”

Michal (Milan Ondrík) is under a lot of stress. His company, a small regional newspaper, threatens to go under. He is trying everything to keep it afloat, including secretly asking his ex for a loan and bringing in a new investor, who he is supposed to introduce to his editorial staff in a meeting he is already late for. On top of that, his wife Zuzana (Dominika Morávková) asks if he can drop their two-year-old Dominika off at daycare. And then there’s that damn heatwave. After leaving Dominika in the safe hands of her teacher, he races to a full day in an office where the air-conditioning is broken, and his only respite is watching home videos of his family’s last vacation, which feels as if it was years ago. When Zuzana calls and says Dominika is not at the daycare, a horrified Michal realizes that he has made a terrible mistake. One that could break up his marriage, lose him his company, and have him end up in jail.

Slovakian director Tereza Nvotová uses a small family drama surrounding the kind of incident you might read about in the news from time to time to examine guilt and grief in her third feature Father, a follow-up to her award-winning feminist mystery-drama Nightsiren. Not particularly concerned with heavy subject matter, but instead focusing on the aftermath of a devastating human error, Nvotová’s strong directorial vision, in which cinematography and score do the heavy lifting, prevents Father from being too intimate and small. Long tracking shots submerge the viewer into the stressful world of Michal, trying to juggle a happy family life and being a good dad with the financial malaise at his paper, putting the audience on edge but never preparing them for the gut punch when it dawns on him what he has done, or rather has not done, and what the consequences will be.

It is at this moment that Nvotová pulls out all the stops, as cinematographer Adam Suzin’s camera sends Michal’s life literally spinning while Jonatán Pastircák’s buzzing, synth-heavy score starts to irritate in the best of ways. There are several more dramatic moments in the film where Michal, overcome by grief, loses focus or control (and often both), and the director uses the visual power of the camera and the abrasive noise of the music to mimic his state of mind, and sometimes that of his wife Zuzana. Both Ondrík and Morávková have a tendency to lay it on a little thick in these scenes, but fare better when the story navigates out of the immediate aftermath of their daughter’s terrible fate and into calmer, more procedural waters in the film’s second half. Gone now are the reminders of Dominika’s existence: toys strewn across a kitchen counter, crude drawings of a two-year-old hung up on a wall, children’s clothes in a hamper. But their ordeal is not over. Dominika’s death has broken their marriage, and Michal is facing a trial that is nationwide news. His mistake can be attributed to ‘forgotten baby syndrome’, a situation in which a mundane act such as driving causes the brain to go on autopilot and create false memories for anything that falls outside the normal routine. It can happen to anyone, which is why he escapes jail time even while being found guilty. But it has caused irreparable damage in some of his relationships, even with his closest allies; some people will never believe him, and will make him have to carry this mistake for the rest of his life.

Father is a story driven by plot and emotions, and shines a light on a little-known problem that probably occurs more than we realize, yet in the hands of a director more inclined to a social realist approach this film would miss the extra layer that Nvotová’s visual direction brings. It is window dressing to an extent, yes, but her cinematic language lifts the film to another level and places us deeper into the emotional world of its protagonist. It is not perfect; acting choices can be erratic and scenes can feel unrealistic and too thought through, but the core remains engaging because of the fabulous camera work that is unobtrusive but guiding. A strong drama with a clever way of portraying memories, Father is Nvotová’s best film to date, and a surefire candidate for a good festival run and a healthy post-festival life.