A father tells the tragic story of his marriage to his older daughter in Frank Christian Wagner’s short film, A Father’s Job. Johann (Christian Harting) and Anna (Dorothee Frauenlob) had an idyllic marriage based on love, and daughter Helga (Jessica Stautz) was the result. So idyllic that this relationship caught the attention of another man (Thomas Blobel).
Returning home from World War II, Johann tells Helga about the fairy tale nature of his love for Anna. But with no sign of the war’s end, Anna succumbed to her loneliness and entered into an affair with their “friend.” Eventually, the distraught Anna would commit suicide, and Helga would go to live with her grandparents. However, as the war-weathered Johann recounts what happened to Anna, he realizes there was more to her story than mere infidelity.
“Anna succumbed to her loneliness and entered into an affair with their ‘friend.'”
A Father’s Job is a story that highlights what happened to Jewish women who were married to German men before the war. They were referred to as “privileged Jews” as they were spared from deportation. However, as their husbands were sent off to war, these women were subjected to humiliation and the unwanted advances of other men. The ridicule and loneliness led thousands to commit suicide.
Writer/director Wagner tells the story of these women in a unique and intriguing way. The narrative of A Father’s Job is told through the standard use of flashbacks, while Johann narrates the affair in a slow manner. But then, with a flip of a switch, Johann repeats his narration seeing the events from a different perspective. Think the final reveal of Usual Suspects, but more poetic and haunting.
For more information about A Father’s Job, visit https://afathersjobmovie.com/
"…poetic and haunting."
