Locarno Review: A Son And A Father (2024)
Locarno Film Festival
Pardi Di Domani – Corti D’Autore Competition
A boy needs a father. Or at least a father figure. But what happens when the “boy” is a teenager one foot taller than the “man”, who is not his father, but his mother’s submissive boyfriend? Wait and see what happens in Andrés Ramírez Pulido’s short film A Son & a Father, which has just premiered at Locarno’s Pardi di Domani competition.
In a masterclass on script economy, Pulido and his co-writer Johana Agudelo Susa (who is also the film’s production designer and co-producer) inform us about the background of our protagonist Kevin using still photos that zoom over the parts of his record of a family services agency in a provincial town in Columbia. At the same time, synth-heavy music by Jean-Charles Bastion plays in the background. Kevin (Jhojan Jiménez) is a problematic teen who cannot control or manage his emotions and who reacts with violence when he is being called names. His “modus operandi” is burning school property and graffiti-ing his classmates’ pets.
Therefore he must go to a secluded group therapy facility and he has to be accompanied by his father (figure). Once there, he and his “step-father” Freddy (Hugo Andrés Yate) have to take part in silly challenges and compete against equally mismatched father-son couples under the supervision of a therapist to regain trust between each other and improve Kevin’s behaviour. But what if Freddy is even more of a fool than Kevin, and other loud-mouth fathers and indisposed sons are even crazier than them?
The amount of material in A Son & a Father would suffice even for a feature film, but the whole thing works like clockwork, in a 25-minute runtime. The entire crew (and it is numerous) should be commended for their work, from the actors who are perfectly cast for their roles and who act in a relaxed comedy-drama mode, to the cinematographer Balthazar Lab who catches both them and the perfectly arranged tableaux of Susa’s production design, a couple of editors Julie Declaux and Bruno Carboni (also the VFX master here) who hit the right pace without rushing or lagging and the composer who dictates the tension discreetly. That, of course, would not be possible without Pulido’s clever, inspired directing that can be observed in almost every aspect of the craft, from composing the shots to be taken usually from mid-distance to the choice of the editing technique to propel the film from one sequence to another. Simply told, A Son & a Father is a hell of a short film!
Original title: 1 hijo & 1 padre
Year: 2024
Runtime: 25’ 30’’
Countries: Columbia, France
Language: Spanish
Directed by: Andrés Ramírez Pulido
Written by: Andrés Ramírez Pulido, Johana Agudelo Susa
Cast: Hugo Andrés Yate, Jhojan Jiménez, Angie Arboleda, Luis Fernando Aguirre,
Diego Rincón, Juan Esteban Rodriguez
Cinematography by: Balthazar Lab
Editing by: Julie Duclaux, Bruno Carboni
Music by: Jean-Charles Bastion
Sound design by: Carlos E. Garcia, Ezequiel Pinedo León
Sound recording by: Manuel Suárez Parias
Production design by: Johana Agudelo Susa
Visual effects by: Bruno Carboni
Assistant director: Juan Camilo Moreno
Produced by: Lou Chicoteau, Jean-Etienne Brat, Andrés Ramírez Pulido, Jorge Forero, Johana Agudelo Susa
Production companies: Alta Roca Films, Valiente Garcia
Co-production company: Arte France
Supported by: Ministry of culture, arts and science of the Republic of Columbia, CNC, PROCIREP, ANGOA
Sales by: Ouat Media, Manifest
