Fathers and children “My Bike” or “My Father’s Bicycle” is the story of a seventy-year-old man named Vlodek suddenly leaving his wife behind, leaving a note and a mobile phone asking him not to look for her. From shock Vlodek loses consciousness and gets to the hospital, where he is amused by betting on the color of the nurses’ underwear. His relatives, son and grandson come to him. Son Paul is a famous pianist, he lives in Berlin, where he performs concerts. The grandson of Macek is a student, lives in England with his mother, his father has not lived with them for a long time, they have not communicated for many years. Together they go in search of their mother and grandmother to bring her home.
From the comedy that began, cinema quickly flows into a family drama, a drama of generations, where each repeats the mistakes of the other. Vlodek did not communicate with Paul, Paul does not communicate with Macek. Suddenly, the departed grandmother unexpectedly brings together the heroes, for whom this journey is akin to initiation, initiation in the role of grandfather, father and son. It is no coincidence that they sail on a motorboat, as if on the waves of memory, to a fishing lodge, where they will spend almost all their time trying not so much to find the woman who left them as to find ways to each other, to feel what has always been, is and will be between them.
Suddenly, unpleasant memories come to the surface from Pavel’s childhood, when his father, a popular accompanist at weddings, birthdays and funerals, came to his school concert drunk and wearing a gold jacket. Vlodek is pleased with everything and says that the most important thing is that Pavel received a five. A new round of mutual claims of father and son begins, which again and again end up offended “always everything is your way”, abandoned by Paul. Macek looks at everything with a noticeable interest, always taking Vlodek’s side and sincerely does not understand why father and grandfather cannot find a common language, because grandfather was always with his family, and his father left them with his mother. As is common in all families, grandparents and grandchildren understand each other better than parents and children. However, the connection between generations is indestructible, the director deliberately emphasizes this by the fact that in the boat the characters sit precisely in seniority, from senior to junior. Putting the characters in a closed space, as if cut off from the outside noisy world, the director talks to the audience about very important things, mainly about the love of children and parents. It is no coincidence that Macek asks his father: “How did you feel when I was born?”, to which he replies that he was happy, of course, adding that if a person is normal, then he should always react this way. Maczek is upset, which Paul, passionate about the upcoming concert and the search for a lost mother, of course, does not notice. The son is not sure that fits into the boundaries of normality of the father, in their relationship through the tension that saturated the entire film except for the joint scenes of the grandfather and grandson. Tension comes to a head when, after being rescued from a burning house, Vlodek forgets to thank his son, simply because he finds it difficult to talk to him.
Paul’s relationship to his mother, as well as to his father, is very cruel, consumerist, but he does not notice this, although he is irritated when his son tells him about alimony. Paul believes that his mother should be with his father so that he can play his elaborate concert in Berlin. In his opinion, it is impossible to fall in love at the age of 75, there is a father for whom a mother must take care, as she has done throughout her life. However, when he sees his mother happy, perhaps for the first time in his life, he is hesitant to even come and talk to her, realizing that she will not return, because there are things in life more important than duty. It is from such brief episodes that the images of the three main characters are formed, each of which is the key to the other.
Approaching the theme of love, fatherly and filial, it is impossible not to mention the story that is put in the title. Vlodek once gave his son a bicycle. They went for a walk together, where little Paul fell, which is normal for a child. Vlodek told him that if he fell again, he would take his bike away. But Paul never fell again. This story is told by adult Paul to his teenage son. Maczek, who tends not to trust his father too much, asks his grandfather if this is true, to which his grandfather replies that it is true. "Would you really take it?" asks Maczek. Vlodek says no, he wouldn't. The grandson asks why he said that. Grandfather replies, “So that he never falls.” I think the whole point of the film is in this story. Love in the imagination of many is to mess with the child in the sandbox, do lessons together, lead the hand to school. True parental love, however, is to ensure that a child never falls off a bicycle, but throughout his or her life. And this requires a rigidity, which does not mean dislike or something negative, it only confirms the care of the child and prepares him to overcome the difficulties that will inevitably be full of life. This is the main lesson that Macek takes with him with his bicycle.
“My Bicycle” is a touching, intelligent film about life and love, which must not only be watched, but also revised, because the film is deceptively easy, in fact, it is a difficult film about simple and understandable to everyone values of life, which only confirms the fact that everything that is created in the world is made for love.