The theme of fatherhood in Kira Kovalenko's film «Unclenching the Fists»

The work of the young director Kira Kovalenko attracts with the author's careful attitude to the languages of the peoples inhabiting Russia. In the film, the actors speak Ossetian. It is worth noting the originality of the film director's view of the drama of a girl who survived the seizure of a school in Beslan by terrorists. The film "Unclenching Fists" was awarded the "Un Certain Regard" award at the Cannes Film Festival. The fate of a girl in the modern world is part of the idiostyle of Kira Kovalenko. The value of family relationships, where elders take care of children, children are obedient and respond to the care of their parents, understand and accept their will, rarely arouses the interest of filmmakers. At the center of the narrative are the broken destinies of film heroes, where in an incomplete family, the obedience of children is based on fear of their father, who is crushed by an event that brought grief to his family. He cannot unclench his fists with which he tries to protect his children, and does not let them out of his care. The children grow up, try to prove to their father that they are capable of living independently, but the fear of the head of the family that he can lose the most precious thing - children - does not give him peace. He transmits his love through prohibitions, strict control and unwillingness to see that children suffer. His task is not to unclench his fists, not to let the children go away from him, to keep them constantly in sight in order to come to the rescue at any moment. The daughter has the hardest time in the family, who needs special attention, after the explosion at school she became disabled, she needs an operation. The cinematic cultural value of this film is that it is connected with the leading theme of Russian cinema - fathers and children - and transmits the view of contemporaries on the events associated with the consequences of terrorism in Russia.