Bawke - POV - Aarhus Universitet

32 p.o.v. number 21 March 2006
deported. On his way out he hears the chatter of children. Glancing
over he sees his son engrossed in a game with another child. He
pauses for a final look at the son he may never see again. Just as he is
turning to leave, the boy looks up and sees him. Outside he is already
sitting in the car with a policeman driver and translator. The boy
rushes up to the window. “Bawke!” “Father!“ He has found his father
again and now he is leaving him. He bangs on the car window. The
policeman asks him if he knows who the boy is. There is an unbear-
able pause, before he shakes his head. No, he does not know who this
boy is. The camera stays on the horrified face of the policeman who
along with the translator, clearly understand what is going on. A long
pause where the boy realises his father will not budge and with a final
accusation of broken promises, his hands slide away from the win-
dow. And so complicit, the three men drive away.
The boy runs after the car, calling out for his father. We see the
father with tears in his eyes remove his old woolen hat. The boy finds
it in the snow, picks it up and hidden in the fold is, of course, the foot-
ball card. The separation is complete. He has the card.
In the final shot the young boy is standing, small and silhouetted
against a wide, borderless, snow covered landscape. This final shot is
in stark contrast to all the earlier shots where everything was delim-
ited by fences, containers, highways with speeding traffic, barriers,
crowded subway platforms, doorways, and narrow hallways.
He glances back towards the hostel. This is where his future lies.
He will be assimilated into this Western culture. He will go to school
in this country and maybe even university. The sacrifice is the gift
from his father (mother), allowing him entry into this new world. It is
his destiny and future. There is a feeling of hope, with the first sign of
sunlight coming from the direction taken by his departing father.