Not often, in our modern day do we get to see a film that questions our philosophical nature of, what does it mean to die.
I saw this film last month at online short festival. I liked the poster and question "How far would you go to save your daughter from death?" Watched the film and was left with more questions and doubt then enjoyment. The film had very little to no movement, very bad camera work, and the dialogue jest never stopped, but still in all of that negativity the characters and the story were intriguing. I am a huge Bergman fan, and have studied all of his films quite intensively. I saw the connection and all of the references that the writer made towards "The Seventh Seal" and loved it.
The writer's ability to take all of religion out of this story, even while having a priest in it was great, the film wasn't about which religion was right or wrong, but about what we want to believe. His Death or Father Time or "Pater Tempus", is purely fascinating, he isn't bad, he isn't even the antagonist of the film, but rather its shepherd.
The story of "Father Time" is quite simple; to what length will a parent go save his child. But when listening to the conversation which Mathew has with Death, is actually quite complex. The whole underlining dialogue is about our own existence. What if we die today, to save ourselves from pain tomorrow. What does it really mean to be alive or to have lived. Is death really the end?
What also intrigued me was that the writer showed the story of our own ignorance and our own inability to accept that with time we age and the we die. We live in a world where we assume that we can cheat death, maybe if we get rich enough we can buy tablets, have surgery to replace the dying organs, etc... We think we are invincible and immortal, But we are not.
I had the chance to contact the writer and ask for the script and the story. As well as to him questions about the film and his inspiration, which he was really understanding and eager to answer, so thank you. That made me appreciate the film and its story that much more, it is a shame that he decided to direct the film himself. You can very clearly see the unexperienced work and bad choices of lighting and camera movement, as well as actors direction, they just stand there for minutes talking.
Overall, this was a fascinating story, which was let down by its own creator for trying to do everything. Stick to writing would be my advice.
