ISAE MEIDAEN (PATER NOSTER)
A film review by Andreas Kutschera
Copyright 1994 Andreas Kutschera
Finland 1993 Written & Directed By Veikko Aaltonen With Hannu Kivioja, Martti Katajisto, Elina Hurme Camera: Olavi Tuomi Music by Mauri Sumen B/W, 88 mins
Plot synopsis: PATER NOSTER is a film about a father/son relationship. Johani returns to his childhood home afters years spent "sailing the seven seas." It is a desolate house somewhere in the Finnish countryside. Johani's father lives in a hospital for the elderly, where he is tied to a wheelchair and generally seems to be unable to understand what is going on around him. Soon after Johani starts cleaning up the house, he takes his father home. Throughout the whole film, Johani tries to "come to peace" with his father.
speed rating: *** (recommended, comparable to NAKED)
This is a very slow-moving film, no action, no car chases, very few jokes, if any. So what makes it interesting? The story flows very nicely, each tension block is built up slowly (though some are pretty obvious) and a lot of times it is *after* you watched a certain scene that you realize the impact it has. Aaltonen manages to put a lot of characters on the screen who seem one-dimensional at first but show more and more diversity throughout the film. He uses dialog very consciously and often lets the pictures speak for themselves, which works due to his good cameraman. This film is a good example of a picture being worth a thousand words. Very often you see something and you do not need the dialog to grasp what's going on (though reading the sub-titles does help at times :-). In fact, just by listening to the dialog you will miss some major parts of the story. The movie sets a depressing tone but also, at the same time, there is always reasonable hope that things will get better. And, yes, there are love scenes in the movie.
All in all, if you want a movie for a first date, I suggest you try something else, but if you want something you can still talk about after you left the theater, something that grabs you somewhere other movies don't reach, this might be the one. But since it is a Finnish movie and it is black and white, I doubt it will even make the video stores, so look for it at a film festival near you.
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