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Bawke
DIR/WRI: Hisham Zaman • PRO: Gudny Hummelvoll Andersen • DOP: Marius Matzow Gulbrandsen • ED: Arild Tryggestad • CAST: Sedar Ahmad Saleh, Broa Ako Rasol
The expression ‘Good things come in small packages’ comes to mind upon viewing the Norwegian short film Bawke (meaning father), directed by Hisham Zaman. Zaman already has a number of well-received short films to his name, and with Bawke one marvels at how effectively a father-son relationship and the theme of love and sacrifice are conveyed to the viewer, despite it being a mere fifteen minutes in length. In this time, however, Zaman manages to establish a distinct plot and resolution with a profound message attached.
The plot is established within approximately one minute. The film starts with a father
(played by Serdar Ahmed Saleh) and son (played by Broa Ako Rasol) running across a highway. Without delay the father cuts a hole in a wire fence and they climb through, finding themselves in a truck yard. Peering nervously around, they climb onto the underside of one of the trucks, which departs promptly for another country harbouring, unknown to the driver, two Kurdish refugees from Iraq in search of a better life. This is the foundation on which the story is based. One notes during the first minute or so the absence of a maternal figure. For me this intensified the relationship between father and son, but also their quest.
Upon their arrival at a cargo port, the father attempts to persuade the son to go his own way, as there is a better chance that the authorities will take him in as a child. However, the child refuses to leave him and the father agrees provided that he disposes of his personal belongings, namely a couple of soccer cards. Initially the boy refuses and the father walks off leaving him staring after him. Within a few seconds though we hear the boy yell ‘bawke’ as he catches up with him, an early reference to the title. He flings the cards up in the air and storms off, leaving his father to pick up a single card depicting Zinedine Zidane. This card proves important at the end of the film. I felt great admiration for both characters in this scene, firstly for the father and his willingness to sacrifice himself for the sake of his son, and secondly for the boy’s refusal to leave his father despite having to give up his prized soccer cards.
The next scene sees them in the subway station en route to the refugee centre, their destination. Whilst speaking to the attendant, the father suddenly realises that the son is missing but luckily spots him on one of the trains, and boards it before it departs. This illustrates the father’s refusal to leave the boy until he is sure that he will receive the best care possible. On the train the boy is beckoned to by a little girl to go and talk to her. While they look out one of the windows chatting to one another the father looks on smiling, hopeful that this is the sort of life his son will have eventually, unlike life in their native country. I felt great happiness at this point thinking that they were finally going to be happy. However, this was short lived. Without warning ticket wardens appear, and upon discovering that the father has no ticket they take him away, unknown to the son who turns around from the window a short time later to discover that his father has vanished.
The final scene takes place in the refugee centre. We are firstly shown an external view into a room where a policeman is questioning the father with the aid of an interpreter. The father is then led out of the building spotting on his way his son playing with another child in one of the rooms. He does not call out. The audience realises that this is the point when father and son inevitably go their separate ways. It is the child who spots his father and runs across the snow-covered ground as he closes the door of the police car. The son bangs on the glass shouting ‘bawke’ once again. This time, however, he will not succeed in catching up with his father. When questioned by the policeman driving the car as to whether he knows the boy, the father replies that he does not.
The final shot is of the boy standing alone in the snow looking over his shoulder towards the refugee centre and back down the road as the car carrying his father disappears into the distance. It is a symbol that his past is also disappearing into the distance while his future is now behind him – ‘Yesterday’s history, tomorrow’s a mystery and today is a gift (the present)’. The boy looks down and sees his father’s hat on the ground, inside which is the Zinedine Zidane soccer card. This will always be a reminder of his father and the enormous sacrifice that he made for his son. By the end of the film we are in no doubt that the profound moral of the story is that sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. Sometimes we have to do what we dread most in order to achieve what we desire most. Bawke is a wonderful film that sets out to show how humans can discover vast amounts of courage within themselves to do what they know is right. I enjoyed the film immensely and it is definitely deserving of the seven awards it has earned to date.
Andrew Naylor
Age 16,
Dublin
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