Father and Daughter is an animated short film directed by Dutch animation director Michael Dudwitt in 2000, which won the 73rd Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
Figure | Douban
This classic short film is only 8 minutes short, the whole film has zero lines, no narration and words, only the organ and piano as the soundtrack, simple and simple to give people a stronger infection, countless people cried into tears after watching it. The simple expression of the boundary between birth and death, as well as the strong family affection between father and daughter.
The director gives the characters deep feelings and tells us a very touching story about love and life. The story contains various metaphors, the boat represents the vehicle that has passed away, and the endless sea represents the thought.
It can be noted that the people in the film are riding bicycles, and the director has given the wheel many close-ups, the wheel symbolizes life, the wheel turns, life passes, and the father throws away the bicycle to go far away, symbolizing the end of life.
<h1 class="ql-align-justify" >01 family affection is a lifetime of persistence and waiting</h1>
In the 9 scenes in the short film, the daughter watches 9 times, telling the love of her life, showing her lifelong waiting and watching for her father, and her attachment and pursuit of emotions. The persistence of the daughter's heart is the parting that she never forgets.
At the beginning of the story, the father and daughter each ride their bicycles through a forest, climb up the hillside, and reach the sea. The father put down his bicycle, and the daughter stayed with him. The father crouched down to say goodbye to his daughter, and then walked to the boat in the sea, perhaps not to rest assured of his daughter, or perhaps knowing that he would leave forever, the father suddenly turned back, picked up his daughter and turned around, and then rowed away, disappearing into the daughter's sight, meaning the end of life.
At this time, the daughter still cannot understand that her father's departure is forever. After the father left, the daughter stood guard by the sea, and until the sun went down, the father still did not return, and she rode home alone. This scene deeply paves the way for the entire short film, and all the scenes that follow revolve around this picture, that is, waiting and watching.
Figure | Father and Daughter
In the second part of the short film, the daughter has grown up a little bit and is not as easy as when she rode uphill with her father, and this plot reveals to us that without her father's help and protection, life has become extremely difficult, but she (we) still have to go forward.
This reminds me of my father, who carried heavy objects when I was a child, and his father always carried it and never let me do it. Later, I traveled far away without my father's care, only to find that my father had borne too much for us.
The daughter grew up to be a young girl, and rode through that section of the road with her classmates, but she struggled harder than her classmates, which meant that she had to experience more hardships and difficulties. Arriving at the sea again, the daughter once again looked into the distance, thinking deeply of her father.
The daughter has grown into a big girl, has a beloved boyfriend, sits in the back seat of her boyfriend's bicycle, looks so calm, and her heart is more stable. When she reached that place, she didn't get out of the car, she just looked back. This detail is very touching, we are not like this many times, for what has been lost, there is a deep sense of powerlessness, except to look at that place, leaving a sigh in the heart, there is no way.
At this time, the daughter may want to share her joy with her father and find the love of her life, but unfortunately, her father is long gone, and she can only look at the place where her father left.
Until one day, the daughter was married and had children, and came to this seaside with her husband and children. The child has been playing and playing at the beach, just like she was simple. The daughter is still standing where she was separated from her father, looking at the place where her father left, although the picture is simple, the feelings are very heavy.
The daughter has reached middle age, and during the ride, she began to shake and her center of gravity was unstable, indicating that she had begun to grow old, but she still insisted on watching this place and waiting for her father's return. No matter how old we are, in the eyes of our parents, we will always be children.
The last time the daughter watched over her father, she had become an old man, and she could not ride a bicycle, but could only push the bicycle forward. When I arrived at the beach, the bicycle fell down again and again, and the daughter lifted up again and again, and finally fell down, and the daughter did not pick up again. It was a deep sense of powerlessness and a compromise with reality, and she seemed to be saying, forget it.
In just eight minutes, the girl's life is played; in just eight minutes, it interprets companionship, parting, hope and reunion; in just eight minutes, it shows the strong family affection between father and daughter, and it is this family affection that makes her persistently wait and wait. Looking back at the beginning of the short film, when the father is about to leave, he turns around and picks up his daughter and turns around, this picture is so warm and touching. Only wholehearted love can have such affection, which is why girls are willing to wait for their father all their lives.
<h1>02 Family affection gives us the strength to overcome all obstacles</h1>
In the short film, the daughter rides her bicycle up that hill every time to reach the place where she is separated from her father. The hillside means obstacles, it means difficulties, but family affection can cross these obstacles, overcome the difficulties in front of you, and reach the other shore of the heart.
There are three scenes that emphasize this point even more. In one of the scenes, the daughter is riding a bicycle forward, and suddenly a strong wind blows, blowing off the leaves, blowing the trees, and blowing the grass. The daughter was already in a retrograde state when she rode to the uphill position, but the daughter did not flinch and rushed forward with all her strength.
Another scene is when it rains and the daughter rides her bicycle to this place again, looking out over the sea where her father left. I deeply understand what is called wind and rain, and the wind and rain in the short film do not represent obstacles and hardships.
There is a special detail in the short film, the girl rides a bicycle, moving forward in the night, and the producer also made a close-up of the moon, the night and the wheel, such a picture evokes the most fragile and softest place in our hearts, we are always in the dark night, the more we miss the loved one, the loneliness in the night is also more intense.
The night can also be understood as an obstacle, an obstacle in the daughter's heart, representing loneliness or incomprehension or confusion, and finally it is the affection that gives her strength, allowing her to move forward in the night, not afraid of black, not afraid of pain, not afraid of loneliness and loneliness. This picture is also an indispensable place in the whole film, and without this paragraph, it will not set off the loneliness and longing in her daughter's heart.
<h1>03 The love embodied in family affection is an eternal reincarnation, an eternal inheritance, and an eternal love</h1>
There are two obvious contrasts in the short film, one is the part where the daughter rides in the wind, and meets an elderly woman on the way, and the other is that when the daughter is old, she meets a little girl on the way, which seems to tell us that people are changing, things are changing, things are changing, and the only constant is feelings, only love.
At the end of the short film, the director adopts a surrealist approach: the elderly daughter snuggles in the boat, as if going back in time, returning to the time when she was with her father, perhaps a dream or an illusion, the daughter changes back to her childhood appearance, the good wishes become reality, and the daughter and the father who is thinking of twilight are finally reunited.
This picture echoes the original father-daughter hug, and it is also the place that touches people's hearts the most. All the waiting, all the waiting is for the reunion of this moment, and it's all worth it.
One day, I will also reach your age,
Those wrinkles creeping across your face will spread to my face.
And one day, the wheel of time will also take me to the end of the same as you,
Through the tall grass of life,
I can lie down again in the crook of your arm,
Looking up, what you see is your doting.
The daughter crosses the river of death and finds her father waiting for her. The years have embraced this eternal love with a broad mind. It's like the last line in "Father and Son": Dad, we will see each other again. In just a few words, it expresses the deep affection between father and son. Schiller said: The love of father and son is in the heart, not in flesh and blood. Why not between father and daughter? As long as there is always this love in the heart, the family will always exist.
This love will be a reincarnation, constantly preserved, constantly passed on, that is an emotion that can overcome all obstacles. There is a proverb in India that says that everything else in the world is false, empty, and only motherhood is true, eternal, and immortal.
This first love, like light, illuminates our whole life; this last light, like love, warms our whole life.