Dutch film Three Days of Fish opened the Crystal Globe competition at the 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Peter Hoogendoorn’s makes you ponder longer and look at your relationship with your father.
A 85-minute-long film, shot completely in black and white, is a comedy-drama filled with dry humor that explores the relationship between an aging father and a middle-aged son. Three Days of Fish (Dire Dagen Vis) deals with 65-year-old Gerrie, who lives abroad with his second wife and visits Rotterdam for his annual check-ups. He spends three days with his family and his 45-year-old son, Dick, who longs to meet him and spend quality time with his father.
This film slowly peels off layers of emotions, long silences, and moments of awkwardness between the father and son. Gerrie, a retired bus driver, has lived in the Algarve with his second wife Rosa for years but is still officially registered in the Netherlands. During his annual visit, he stays with his stepdaughter and her family but has never really spent time with his son. The simple yet strained dialogues between father and son hint at the emotional distance between them.
Dick longs to share his life’s ups and downs, small achievements, and events with his absent father during his visits to Rotterdam. This longing is beautifully captured by the camera, making the city an important part of the father and son’s lives.
Director Peter Hoogendoorn, in his second autobiographical film (his first film, Between 10 And 12, was released in 2014), brings dry, witty humor to ease the melancholy in the film, with the constant looming threat that Dick might not see his father again.
The sense of awkwardness shadows their farewell. Although one can see immense love between them, it’s the son’s craving for more time that makes you question if even the short time spent with your father is enough.
There are some fantastic scenes that speak volumes about the father-son relationship. For instance, walking past a huge ship or the scene where the train tracks crisscross shows the turmoil within the son and his longing to be with his father for more than three days.
The actors, Ton Kas as Gerrie and Guido Pollemans as Dick, make these characters believable. One can relate to the situation that Dick is going through, as well as Gerrie, who feels that the three-day visit is enough to know everything about his son.
The title of the film is based on a proverb which states that a fish smells bad after three days. A simple story, yet poignant enough to question your relationship with your parents.
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