A young African refugee is startled when she sees the man who assaulted her years ago, or possibly just someone who looks like him, in 2021's Our Father, the Devil. There's a lot more to it than that, though, and by the end of the film the edges are blurred between victim and abuser. It's an interesting idea sadly bogged down by writer/director Ellie Foumbi's obvious lack of knowledge or experience in the topics she's chosen to address.
Marie (Babetida Sadjo) is a chef at a nursing home in southern France. She's quiet but seems to be well adjusted to her new environment, having made genuine friendships with the staff and established herself as a reliable and gifted employee. However, she becomes withdrawn and surly when a new priest, Father Patrick (Souleymane Sy Savane), starts visiting the home.
The movie waits a very long time before telling us anything about Marie's past so we can only judge by her physical responses to the man. She thinks he's someone, a warlord, from her past in West Africa, someone who'd done her some grievous wrong, despite the fact that she's read news reports of this warlord's death. Sadjo gives a good performance but it still feels as though there's a wall between her, the point of view character, and the audience.
Then, one night, when she's alone with him in the kitchen, she knocks him out with a frying pan, drags him to a little cottage by a cliff, and ties him up. So many things here suggest the logic of a cartoon or a pulpier action movie. From what I've been reading to-day, it is actually possible to knock someone out with something like a heavy cast iron skillet. TV Tropes quotes Anthony Bourdain: "A proper saute pan should cause serious head injury if brought down hard against someone's skull." In this movie, though, getting knocked out also has no lingering side effects. Then there are questions relating to the rope and the location. Patrick is tied just by his wrists most of the time with a rope run through hooks in the ceiling. From what we learn about Marie's past, it's possible she did learn how to tie someone up like this, but when considering the time and effort required for her to set it up in the cottage, it's questionable whether she could have relied on Patrick to be unconscious for so long.
The cottage is a gift willed to her by an old woman staying at the nursing home and the old woman's grandson is upset that someone outside the family would take possession of the place. This is meant to explain why the police or no-one else checks the place in the days while Patrick is missing, though it doesn't explain why none of the family members visit or why Marie feels comfortable leaving Patrick unattended for days. We also really need a scene establishing that Patrick's escape is impossible. There are many visible knick-knacks about the cottage he could get at with his feet. The logistics become even more strained as further events unfold.
Foumbi apparently has an MFA in directing, according to imdb, but I wish she'd paid better attention in Hitchcock class. The details of a kidnapping are not incidental, they're vital components woven into character motives and state of mind. Emoufi's weak grasp of this storytelling concept are reflected in the more crucial problem of the vagueness of Marie's past. There are references to murder and rape but only superficial mentions of motive, or the necessary layers of perceived motive and reevaluation that are alluded to. The film is competently shot and oddly relaxing at times but, despite dedicated performances, everything feels very thin and dispassionate.
Our Father, the Devil is available on The Criterion Channel.
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