'Frenchman' is a disturbing film that reminds me of another Russian film, the excellent 'The Return'.
A man joins his family again after spending several years as prisoner of war. His two young sons, Viktor and Vlad, don't recognize him anymore and treat him like a stranger. The boys are ill-disciplined and lazy. The man finds that hard to swallow and tries to beat some discipline into them, but without success. As a matter of fact it makes matters worse. The kids start to deliberately incite their mother against her husband. In the mean time the man's roguish wind-bag brother, also an ex POW, moves in with them. It quickly becomes clear that the kids like him more than their own dad.
The dad despondently decides to make a change to try and keep his family together. His wife and kids will move with him to another part of the country, he decides. He did not reckon with the opposition it would create. Matters seem to get worse when the kids conspire with their uncle to get rid of their dad...
The director (Galina Daneliya-Yurkova) handled this tragic tale of alienation and interpersonal relations going off the tracks light- handedly. It is not sensationalized or overly sentimental as easily could have been the case, given the subject matter. The acting in this unsettling film is of high quality. I found the cinematography excellent too, with subdued colours adding to the ambiance of the film. I score 'Frenchman' a good 7.5/10.
A man joins his family again after spending several years as prisoner of war. His two young sons, Viktor and Vlad, don't recognize him anymore and treat him like a stranger. The boys are ill-disciplined and lazy. The man finds that hard to swallow and tries to beat some discipline into them, but without success. As a matter of fact it makes matters worse. The kids start to deliberately incite their mother against her husband. In the mean time the man's roguish wind-bag brother, also an ex POW, moves in with them. It quickly becomes clear that the kids like him more than their own dad.
The dad despondently decides to make a change to try and keep his family together. His wife and kids will move with him to another part of the country, he decides. He did not reckon with the opposition it would create. Matters seem to get worse when the kids conspire with their uncle to get rid of their dad...
The director (Galina Daneliya-Yurkova) handled this tragic tale of alienation and interpersonal relations going off the tracks light- handedly. It is not sensationalized or overly sentimental as easily could have been the case, given the subject matter. The acting in this unsettling film is of high quality. I found the cinematography excellent too, with subdued colours adding to the ambiance of the film. I score 'Frenchman' a good 7.5/10.
