Page - 28 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/02

28 | Isabella Guanzini www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/2, 15–32 beyond the possibility of death. Olivier’s success corresponds to the interrup- tion of a repetition, to the release from the prison of his past and to a new be- ginning in his and Francis’ life, without forgetting. Something happens between Olivier and Francis on a Saturday morning, when the man takes the boy along to a remote lumberyard, both to teach him the different types of wood and to come to terms with the past, the present and the future of his paternity. The drive to the lumberyard, shot from be- hind, showing the backs of Olivier and Francis’s heads, alludes to Abraham and Isaac’s dramatic walk to Mount Moriah: the Dardennes present the sorrow and temptation of a father, who has to be a father after the death not only of his son, but also of God.42 In the last sequence of the film, after Olivier’s revelation that Francis is the murderer of his son, the boy escapes into the woods with the man chasing him. In the end, Olivier catches Francis, and struggling with him, he wraps his hand around his throat and seems to be tempted to kill him. His hesi- tation, which dramatically expresses his oscillation between recrimination and forgiveness, the desire for revenge and wish for adoption, ends with a long shot of Olivier weeping next to the boy until he disappears among the trees into the woods. Olivier does not have to forgive the murderer, but he must not kill again: Forgiveness between Olivier and Francis has not to be omnipotent. This does not deal with forgiveness but with the impossibility of murder. How can one not see at the same time forgiveness here as well? We do not know how the end of the film will be, but we do not have to fall into reconciliation, where nobody remains unforgiv- able. Olivier cannot completely substitute his son. In the film the point is the father and not forgiveness. In not killing Francis, Olivier is the father, who will perhaps per- mit Francis to reconnect with life.43 This reconnection with life after death – the death of a son, the Father, an illegal immigrant – represents a fundamental issue of the Dardennes’ filmic produc- tion. It deals with the possibility to reconnect with reality after the end of the grand narratives, after the time of protests and the age of revolutions. They suggest that, at the time of his evaporation, the Name-of-the-Father has to be understood in its whole legacy.44 This means that the viewer has come to terms both with the “primordial father of the horde” (Roger), who teaches his son to lie, steal and kill, and with the “father of work” (Olivier), who tries to remain a father, oscillating between revenge and forgiveness. In both cases, it is not possible to encounter the father face-to-face but only from behind or by catching glimpses of his gaze between his glasses and his 42 “How can we inherit meaning from our childhood Bible readings when God can no longer be found?” (Dardenne 2008, 19). See Mai 2010, 94. 43 Dardenne 2009, 85. 44 Dardenne 2009, 76.