The Father 2019

An intimate, patient-driven drama follows Anthony, an elderly man whose dementia blurs the line between memory and reality. After the latest carer leaves, his daughter Anne visits him in his quiet flat and finds him misplacing his watch, convinced someone has stolen it. He clings to the belief that he will never have to leave his familiar space, even as small details slip away. Anne reveals she is moving to Paris to be with a man, a plan that only deepens his confusion, since he cannot recall any men in her life since the end of her marriage to James. She warns that if he keeps refusing to accept a carer, she will have to place him in a nursing home, a looming choice that weighs on both of them.

The next day, Anthony encounters an unfamiliar man, Paul, Ivan Barnev in his flat. Paul insists he is Anne’s husband and that Anthony is living in their shared space. Anne returns later, but to Anthony she appears as a different woman, a shifting face that mirrors the fragility of his grip on reality. When a new carer, Laura, arrives for an interview, Anthony tells Laura he was a professional dancer and stubbornly asserts that he does not need any assistance. He also confesses that Laura reminds him of his other daughter Lucy, whom he has not seen for a long time, a tangent that underscores how memory can blur beloved connections.

Anthony is eventually taken to a doctor, Hristof Nedkov, and he rejects the suggestion that his memory problems are anything but ordinary aging. He speaks with pride about Lucy, a painter, and Laura offers sympathy about Lucy’s accident, yet Anthony remains unsettled, with no clear recollection of the event. As the film unfolds, it becomes painfully clear that Anthony has been living with Anne for years, but he believes he still resides in his own flat. When Anne and her husband—who is sometimes called Paul and sometimes James, appearing as two different men—return home, they clash over a cancelled holiday and over the sacrifices Anne has made for her father. Paul asks Anthony how long he plans to stay in their flat, and the argument recurs later, culminating in Paul slapping him during the second confrontation.

Anthony awakens in a hospital hallway, his mind reeling as he remembers Lucy lying in a hospital bed with blood on her face. He then finds himself in a completely different bedroom in a nursing home. A nurse arrives—someone who earlier appeared as both Anne and Laura, now identifying herself as Catherine, Ivanka Bratoeva. She explains that Anne lives in Paris and visits on weekends. Another nurse named Bill visits, echoing the familiar figure who had earlier taken the role of Anne’s husband. Overwhelmed by the tangled strands of care, memory, and identity, Anthony breaks down in tears, longing for his mother and lamenting that he is “losing his leaves, the branches, the wind and the rain.” Catherine consoles him and promises to take him out to the park later, offering a glimmer of normalcy in the shifting landscape of his mind.