Kauwboy: Loss and nurturing in the hands of an eleven year old
To be able to sit with your kids (7 & 9) in a cafe in town and discuss what the loss of parent can mean to both a child and their dad was made possible today by a film that's part of the Copenhagen Buster Film Festival. Thank God that I'm not faced with the situation as befallen the main character, an eleven year old Dutch boy who befriends and raises a baby Jackdaw, in the shadow of a depressed and neglectful dad.
Kauwboy was beautiful and complete. The cinematagraphy transports you back to time where the life and death of a small animal dominates the senses. In an Instagram-like world, the bonds between father and son and boy and bird and stretched and strengthed by the need for both physical and emotional sustenance.
I was lucky enough to be seated behind writer-director Boudewijn Koole and child actor, Rick Lens, both of which deserve enormous praise. During the Q&A, Koole recalled a childhood relationship with a crow, which suffered the same fate. Jokingly he remarked that he didn't suffer from an abusive dad, but the raw feeling of loss was neatly and completely transported through this beautiful film.