From Omeleto.
A Native American son honors his father.
FOUR NIGHTS AND A FIRE is used with permission from Alex Nystrom. Learn more at https://alexnystrom.com.
A young photographer has recently lost his father. True to his Ojibwe tradition, he takes on the responsibility of keeping a sacred fire alive for four consecutive days and nights to mourn for him. Usually the role is shared by the community, so that no one person suffers from the fatigue of the task, but the photographer takes on the duty on his own, his camera his only companion.
He builds the fire in a forest where his dad used to hint, hoping to feel close to him one more time. As the fire burns and the young man grapples with his memory, grief and regrets, the spirit of his father tries to reach him on the other side as he deals with his fear of what’s next.
Directed and written by Alex Nystrom, this meditative dramatic short is a moving and poetic examination of grief, not just from the perspective of the living, but also the dead, who must grapple with their regrets, sadness and sorrow at leaving behind their loved ones. Profoundly spiritual, the storytelling uses the power of cinematic sound, image and movement to capture the psychological bardo between life and death, as well as to explore the interplay between generations as they decide what to bring forward and honor, and what to leave behind.
The film is quiet and often restrained, but guided by its poetic voiceover, its images have startling, elemental power in their starkness, and the storytelling often pauses its flow to show the photographs that Robert captures while mourning his father. Emphasizing the haunting, mysterious forest setting, the elegant, distinctive cinematography feels like its own character, evoking an otherworldly yet earthbound unseen world, remote from the bustling reality of every day. Instead, this is a space where spirits and humans are nestled side by side, though they remain separated.
That separateness is explored and expanded to the dynamic between father and son, as the father looks on as his son struggles with the fire. Actors Benny Wayne Sully and Clem Sully often share the same frame but not quite the same place, their performances more embodiments of these different polarities of existence, even as they parallel one another in essential ways. And yet we can sense their essential connection and love, infused as it is with grief and sorrow at their parting. But things become complicated when the task of keeping the fire alive by himself proves arduous.
That interplay of profound sadness and love, along with its reverent evocation of the spiritual, is part of the spell of FOUR NIGHTS AND A FIRE. Though the father and son eventually arch towards an acceptance of death and parting, theirs is less of a journey and more of a communion with a sense of the profound, wondrous and wise. Death clarifies here: what they love, what they will miss, and what they carry going forward. In the end, there is acceptance, and with that, peace.
