Prolific Slovakian filmmaker Tereza Nvotová returned to feature filmmaking this year with Father, a tightly constructed family drama, which debuted at Venice before screening at Zurich and Stockholm, where the film won Competition awards.
The film, which is Slovakia’s Oscar entry, follows Mikal (Milan Ondrík), a devoted father whose life is shattered by a tragic mistake. One hot summer’s day, he drops his daughter off at preschool. Hours later, he receives a call from his wife saying their child is missing. He later discovers that he had suffered from forgotten baby syndrome, a rare memory failure, which has caused hundreds of tragedies around the world.
The project first originated from producer Veronika Paštéková, who brought the story to Nvotová after learning about forgotten baby syndrome.
“My friend, Dusan Budzak, who is also a co-writer, wrote a book about his best friend who experienced this tragedy. It was the first time I learned about forgotten baby syndrome,” Paštéková told us during a virtual interview with Nvotová for Deadline’s Contenders Film: International.
Paštéková added that she brought the story to Nvotová because she was familiar with her debut feature, Filthy, which debuted at Rotterdam in 2017.
“I was very deeply moved by her storytelling. And I just somehow knew that she had enormous talent and was a rising star,” Paštéková said.
Nvotová said she was “shocked” when she first heard the pitch for the film.
“I only knew the news headlines, and I always thought this was some sort of negligence. I wasn’t aware of the forgotten baby syndrome. I was honestly not aware of how our memory works in our brains,” Nvotová said.
Nvotová added that she initially thought the project was “impossible to film.”
“I just felt like it was too tragic to put in a movie. But even as I felt like my head was saying no, I couldn’t stop thinking about this story,” she said. “I felt like this is not just a story about this terrible mistake, it’s something much deeper. It’s about what it means to be human.”
Nvotová explained that she slowly found her way into the story and crafted a narrative arc that could present the film’s dramatic events while still offering richer philosophical questions. The filmmaker said that an important part of the equation was the film’s visual style. The film unravels through long and slow takes. The camera often remains very close to the characters.
“I really wanted the film to feel very subjective, with the audience becoming this father, because I think otherwise, they would not be able to accept that this could happen to them,” Nvotová said. “I wanted them to live through his reality moment by moment.”
Check back Monday for the panel video.