Official Competition review - BABAI by Visar Morina
The love of a son for a father beyond borders. Babai by Visar Morina in his feature directorial debut, had its international premiere in the official competition of the 50th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
A ten-year-old boy from Kosovo, brought up in largely patriarchal society, makes up for a lack in a mother figure by sharing a strong bond and fascination with his own father. So fascinated is he by him that when he leaves for Germany, he makes up his mind to set off on a journey on his own to reach him there.
Despite the delicate political implications of Babai, in terms of dealing with delicate themes such as poverty and illegal migration - themes deepened by the fact that the film takes place in the mid nineties during the Milosevic years - Visar Morina in his feature directorial debut decides to largely opt for a human approach rather than a political one. This is an approach that recalls Italian neo-realism. By making use of traditional storytelling elements, it makes these issues more universally understandable.
The choice is made evident by the importance of perspective, dominated by the point of view of its young central character and echoed in the cinematography by Matteo Cocco, who infuses the film with elements of nostalgia and fairytale influences. The latter one feels particularly true in the second act of the film, which covers the dangerous journey. Nevertheless, the style also carefully balances all this with an undertone of tension that also distances us from the boy enough to understand his vulnerabilities, warm up to his natural fascination and love for his kind hearted father and allows us to take a glimpse at the hardships of the situations in Kosovo from which many seek to escape.