Aita Father (2010)

Directed by: Jose Maria de Orbe | 85 minutes | drama | Actors: Luis Pescador, Mikel Goneaga

Residents of old houses can agree: an old house is alive. It has character, and although it requires more maintenance than a new-build home, many visitors will enviously sigh that inhabiting a property that has experienced at least one World War is at some points preferable to a modern home. Filmmaker José María de Orbe inherited from his father a few years ago (which may be an explanation of the title, ‘Aita’ means ‘father’) a family home, which survived not just one war, but as many as ten centuries. The majestic house, exactly how big it is, is never clear, stands in a small Basque village. It has not been inhabited for years and due to its dilapidated condition it seems to have passed its best before date. But it inspires the filmmaker for an experimental film. And that became ‘Aita’.

The main protagonist in ‘Aita’ is the house. An empty house at first glance, but brimming with memories. Some characters who are really involved with the house, such as the old gray caretaker, who takes care of the building with heart and soul and a priest from the village church nearby, also play a role in the film. Or they are themselves. That is somewhat unclear, because the line between fiction and documentary in ‘Aita’ is not entirely distinguishable. Not all dialogues between the two have a clear function. Unsurprisingly, the conversations are about life – and above all – death. For example, the priest tells that human hearing does not stop functioning until about twenty minutes after death. The anecdote about a corpse lying in state, which suddenly sat up, is also strange. What is more impressive is the admission of the caretaker who tells that he has been stalked for some time by a white light, which comes towards him and instills fear in him. “You can’t go on like this, I want to go with you to a healer?” the priest advises him. The next scene, where a movie is projected on the wall above the old man’s bed, gives you the chills. That the house is haunted is also more or less confirmed by the frightened girl who has separated herself from their school class with her girlfriend, who is given a tour of the old house for a lesson in local history.

The house is carefully captured by cinematographer Jimmy Gimferrerer. Playing with (natural) light and sound took a lot of time (there was no less than three years of filming), but the patience pays off in enchanting images. When the camera calmly registers, from a tripod, how the caretaker opens the doors and windows one by one to let the light in, it’s like making a puzzle without an example. The projections of old film images that the filmmaker has found in the Basque archive on the moldy walls are absolutely impressive.

However, the successful visual aspect of the film will not be enough for everyone to enjoy ‘Aita’. De Orbe does not tell a story with ‘Aita’, nor does anything become clear about the history of his house, the residents or the film-maker himself. Those who are emotionally touched by the desperate outburst of the caretaker, who expresses his frustrations about the burglary in the house, will have to figure it out for themselves. That is not for everyone. But if you’re open to it, ‘Aita’ is a movie experience you won’t soon forget.