Caring parents, adventurous children and the world

– Something dramatic about this film is that there are no guilty or wrong characters, everyone can be understood and supported. All we can do is watch and hope that this whole story will end with a happy ending – writes our reviewer after watching the film “Affricate”. It was the Polish premiere of a short film by a Hungarian director.

The hardest thing for me has always been watching the stories of parents trying to protect their children. They brought animal fear, a sense of helplessness and pity. For me, these are the most difficult stories to understand and the most emotionally tragic.

A single mother goes on vacation with her two daughters. A dream vacation turns into an attempt to protect their adventurous daughters from the world. This is the story told by director Anna Gyimesi in her film “Affricate”.

Something dramatic about this film is that there are no guilty or wrong characters, everyone can be understood and supported. A single mother living with her children naturally tries to protect them from anyone who could harm them. It often happens that her care limits her daughters and deprives them of joyful moments of life and their youth. On the other hand, there are two young people who want to taste life and experience moments they have dreamed of hundreds of times. And they don’t want to let their youth fade away.

Moreover, the main conflict presented in the film goes even deeper and clashes two worlds – the world of moderation and caution, as well as the world of youth, emotions and, to some extent, irresponsibility. We watch a very skillfully crafted story, with all its shades and nuances. It’s hard for us to take someone’s side, all we can do is watch and hope that this whole story will end with a happy ending.

It was very difficult for me to watch this film and to look at the mother and her helplessness, as well as at the reaction of her daughters. How the woman wants only the best for her children, how she does everything for them, and at the same time, encounters misunderstanding and resistance.

“Affricate” does not leave us with a broken story, but tries to find a solution. In a desperate desire to protect her daughters from the temptations of the world, the mother herself succumbs to them, and the question arises before us, the viewers: will the mother, after trying all the methods, decide to accept the blow herself, or will she succumb to what she so desperately wanted to protect her children from?

Yurii Boiko

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