FATHER

BABAI

Germany, Kosovo, North Macedonia, France

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BABAI
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Synopsis

Synopsis

Ten-year-old Nori and his father Gezim earn their living by selling cigarettes in pre-war Kosovo of the 90s. Gezim will hear nothing of Nori’s mother. He is an expert at escaping the past and now he wants to flee Kosovo, without Nori. But the boy tries everything in his means to prevent his dad from leaving. An accident results. The shocked father takes Nori to the hospital. When Nori gets out, his father is simply gone. Angry, yet determined, Nori sets out on a perilous journey to find his father and indeed finds him in Germany. With the persistence only a child can have, he confronts his father and cannot forgive him for his desertion.

Ten-year-old Nori and his father Gezim earn their living by selling cigarettes in pre-war Kosovo of the 90s. Gezim will hear nothing of Nori’s mother. He is an expert at escaping the past and now he wants to flee Kosovo, without Nori. But the boy tries everything in his means to prevent his dad from leaving. An accident results. The shocked father takes Nori to the hospital. When Nori gets out, his father is simply gone. Angry, yet determined, Nori sets out on a perilous journey to find his father and indeed finds him in Germany. With the persistence only a child can have, he confronts his father and cannot forgive him for his desertion.

Selections

  • Feature Film Selection 2015

Cast & Crew

Director's Statement

BABAI depicts a pre-war atmosphere in which people become the playthings of abstruse political powers. They sit, a bomb beneath their asses, and talk about the weather. It is precisely this feeling and its naturalness that I want to capture – without comment or condescension. The film's core is Nori's personal story. I imagine the figure of the father as a centre point around which Nori revolves and through which Nori is introduced to life. His absolute trust is destroyed when the father leaves. From Nori's perspective there is nothing that would justify this separation. Nori fights against it with all his strength. His behaviour is an attempt to maintain his own innocence. The pain he feels from separation is less due to the fact that he has to live without a father and more that he must live without trust.

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