La Plume du peintre

Five-year-old Antoine spends every other weekend at his father’s – a limited time that makes transmission all the more pressing. From homework to a hunting trip in the forest, a chronicle of unceasing initiation.

Antoine is 5 when the film begins. During the weekends spent at his father’s house in the country, the focus is on their relationship: the man’s rough yet helping attitude towards the child and the balance he strikes between teaching and educating, which reveals his conception of paternity and manliness. He seems to find in the outdoors an open-air school where he can transmit his knowledge of the flora and fauna; on the hunting trips, childhood fears are displaced, staved off, the cycle of life and death is better understood and the child’s own violence more controlled (“– If I see a bird I’ll smash it! – You don’t smash birds.”). Less present than the yard, road or forest, the domestic space rings with the imperative of schooling – how can both types of learning be reconciled? As father and son are walking through the snow, there is indeed an attempt to read the road signs to practice identifying letters… Agile and resistant, Marie Ka recorded the images and sound herself, over several months, producing a splendid portrait of childhood that refrains from any kind of judgement. The editing has only to capture an imperceptible and joyous movement: the gradual retreat of the father’s role as discoveries, fishing trips and boredom are shared with friends. (Charlotte Garson)