Papa

The calm lasts for just a moment. Then the little one, half-asleep, hits his head. The baby joins in his loud crying, and in the morning, dad’s searching arm reaches out on the sleep sofa, but it is empty. His girlfriend, the mother of the two boys, is gone. She has left behind a few words on a note in the kitchen; she is not reachable by phone. Dad is what one would call in colloquial terms a “Häferl”: he gets hot quickly and boils over—like the milk that he now has to heat up for his baby. Dad is a young man with an attitude, a rapper, a macho. The way he sees and expresses himself are not so easy to align with the care and needs of small children. Apart from that, he lives in Vienna where the care of small children is quite generally still mainly a family and women’s matter. From this starting situation, Umut Dag develops in just forty minutes a compact, little story that seems nearly like a documentary in many situations with its proximity to father and children. A nimble camera follows the anonymous main character played very convincingly by Murathan “Aqil” Muslu in his hectic movements between room, home studio, and kitchen. The children must be fed, diapered, occupied, and calmed. Then friends come by and the family father has to decide between new responsibilities and his cherished old habits. There are no painless, easy answers to the question of how (or whether) it is possible to conform to a community, its values and codes, and at the same time, be a good father. But for the cinema one can gain from its translation into a harmoniously empathetic, tragicomic behavioral study. (Isabella Reicher) Translation: Lisa Rosenblatt

Orig. Title
Papa
Year
2011
Country
Austria
Duration
40 min
Director
Umut Dag
Category
Short fiction
Orig. Language
German, Turkish
Subtitles
English, German
Downloads
Papa (DE & EN) (Article)
Papa (Image)
Papa (Image)
Papa (Image)
Credits
Director
Umut Dag
Script
Stefanie Franz
Cinematography
Georg Geutebrück
Music
Dimitri Giannikopoulos
Editing
Claudia Linzer
Sound Design
Sergey Martynyuk
Production
Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien/Abteilung Film und Fernsehen
Actor/Actress
Murathan "Aquil" Muslu, Erdem Türkoglu, Volkan Tankir, Seyit Tomek, Kaan Tomek, Magdalena Kronschläger
Executive Producer
Philipp Grandits
Supported by
Wien Kultur, VAM
Available Formats
Digital Betacam (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
16:9
Sound Format
Dolby stereo
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
colour
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
Festivals (Selection)
2011
Graz - Diagonale, Festival des Österreichischen Films (Best Short Fiction Award)
Saarbrücken - Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis ()
First Steps Awards - Der deutsche Nachwuchspreis (First Steps Award Fiction Film up to 60 min)
2013
Wien - this human world International Human Rights Film Festival