Acceptance of the Father in Modern Russian Cinema as Society’s Attempt to Accept its Own History and Identity

Abstract

Since the 2000s, Russian cinema has seen a key trend in domestic cinema: the rehabilitation of the father figure on the big screen, which is accompanied by the acceptance of society's own history and lineage, which is imperfect, flawed, but understood to be the only option. In fact, through such a character, society is turning towards itself. The main theme of these films is “not so good but our own”. Moreover, there is a fundamental difference between the “father-daughter” and “father-son” films: while the former focuses on building basic trust in the world through overcoming negative experiences, the latter focuses on restoring the spiritual vertical. The article analyzes modern Russian films that explore the relationship between a father and his son: “Sonok” (2009), “The Heart of the World” (2018), “Temporary Difficulties” (2018), “Batya” (2020), “Family” (2021), “Day of the Dead” (2021), “Batya-2. Grandfather” (2025) and others.