OTETS

“The road to freedom is like walking through a labyrinth. You might end up full of bruises, but the destination is worth it. Because freedom equals love. Freedom rids you of fear. Being free means being yourself. Main thing is to understand who you really are.”
from A Book About Freedom by S. Ovsiannikov

Art documentary “Otets” is a poetic saga about the quest for freedom. The main character, Sergei Ovsiannikov (Leningrad 1952-Amsterdam 2018), was a remarkable man, regarded by hundreds as the Ideal Father. The filmmaker was among them. In the 1990s, both abandoned the sinking ship of the Soviet Union for the western Valhalla of freedom, Amsterdam. In “Otets,” the filmmaker engages in conversation with the deceased Father in the winding paths of the labyrinth. Has he been able to find freedom? Is it even possible for them – born and raised in dictatorship – to achieve freedom?

The film begins at the entrance of the labyrinth in the Soviet past. We trace Sergei’s life journey from his youth in the Soviet Union to his demise in Amsterdam. We witness his imprisonment in the Soviet Union for disobedience, where he discovers the greatest enemy of freedom—the “inner sniper guard” (fear and self-censorship), planted by the regime in the minds of Soviet citizens. After his release, Sergei abandons his physics studies at university to pursue priesthood, a dangerous path in the atheistic Soviet Union where religion was suppressed by communist authorities. Eventually, Father Sergei finds himself in Amsterdam, transforming a small immigrant church into a large multicultural community where Eastern Europeans and Westerners, believers and non-believers, find their free home. Like Tarkovsky’s Stalker, he leads hundreds to the secret room of desire, to freedom, but he himself never enters. While many honour him as an ideal father, his biological children reveal a darker side. His quest for freedom proves to be a lifelong battle with the macabre inheritance of his homeland—the “inner sniper guard.” And it doesn’t stop there…

The film “Otets” goes beyond ones individual fate. “Otets” shows how complex and fragile the notion of freedom is, not only for those who have been raised in dictatorship. And how deeply fear embeds itself in a person, passing down for many generations.

Русский текст

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