email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

VISIONS DU RÉEL 2022 Competition

Review: My Old Man

by 

- Steven Vit follows his father in his last, delicate moments before retirement; a dizzying leap into the void that highlights an unexpected fragility

Review: My Old Man

My Old Man by Steven Vit, which had its world premiere in the International Film Competition at this year’s Visions du réel, conceals many current issues under its appearances as a film about family: the (re)construction of a masculinity which has (thankfully) has lost its old points of reference, the changes in the roles traditionally imposed on husband and wife even in couples once considered “old fashioned,” and the reckoning, perhaps for the first time, with one’s own profound weaknesses. 

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

For his first feature film, the young Swiss director has chosen to film his father in the delicate moment of life that is the passage from “active” life to retirement, a key moment which allows him to approach, little by little, a father he basically knows very little. Each busy living their own busy lives, the director's mother and father find themselves having to share a daily life that appears to suffocate them. Extremely sincere and touching, the film’s two anti-heroes offer a touching and humorous portrait of a couple in step with the times.

The family the director grew up in is a typical Swiss family, structured according to decidedly classical genre roles: a resourceful mother who manages the house and children with passion, and a father who works too much in order to take care of them all, like any good "pack leader" should do. Always traveling due to a demanding and time-consuming job, Rudi Vit has however missed many precious moments in the life of his two children — a bitter observation that he kept buried under piles of important files, but that his retirement brings to the surface in a violent way.

It is precisely this delicate moment of transition, when the certainties of a working life organised around a desk leave room for hitherto unknown questions, that the director decides to observe. The fragility that this decisive stage in life causes allows Steven Vit to get close to his father in a more authentic way. The result is a direct confrontation between adults, conducted with a lot of consideration and respect, but which Rudi initially struggles to accept. Although the first days of retirement still retain the vestiges of a domineering masculinity that leaves no room for the cathartic expression of feelings, the armour that the father has built over the years gradually begins to chip, until it finally gives way to the expression of a new identity still to be built.

A direct and delicate confrontation between two very different generations, My Old Man shows the painful and cathartic transformation of a “baby boomer” finally free from the diktats of a stereotypical and decidedly not very fun gender presentation. Although, as pointed out by his wife, his frequent absences allowed both of them the space to breathe within a society that is not very prone to change, the banality of gender roles has however inevitably shaped their couple as well. This couple now find themselves dealing with a completely new future, in which each of their roles has yet to be invented. Overwhelmed by roller coaster-like emotions, which the director rewrites with sensitivity and an always welcome dose of humour, Rudi finally reveals himself for what he really is: “simply Rudi”.

My Old Man was produced by Lomotion AG Filmproduktion, which is also handling international sales, and SRF.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from Italian)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy