Research into memories At a very young, still unconscious age, Erin was kidnapped from the house by her father’s mistress and taken away. At first she lived with a kidnapper in a female cult, then moved to another city. And then they were exposed, and Erin, already named Kaoru, was returned to her real parents. They gladly accepted the daughter into the family and cursed the kidnapper, who was convicted. But Erina took her family with difficulty, because for four years of captivity she got used to a new mother. At the same time, the kidnapper was not at all an evil criminal who stole a child to mock him. She kidnapped a child just because she couldn't have her own. Kidnapped to give him her love. But now Erin has grown up and together with the journalist, who, as it turned out, was with her in the women’s sect, tries to travel to the places where she was with her non-native mother.
"Renaissance" is a research film and immersion film. The director explores memories and dives into the past. Erina is not finding definitive answers to her questions and seems only to be more disoriented. She doesn't know if she was better off with the kidnapper, who loved her too, or if she should have gone back to her real parents. In any case, the first four years of her life were fateful. They had such an impact on her that they effectively defined her entire life for decades to come. Unconsciously, she absorbed the way of life that the woman who stole her exemplified. So, expecting a child, Erina intends to raise it herself without the help of a man. How is this not a reflection of the experience of a female cult? Moreover, she is almost ready to accept the offer of a journalist about living together. But whether she is ready for the real upbringing of the child is a big question. She is so immersed in the memory of the past that it prevents her from living fully. She is almost neurotic, incapable of normal communication. It is even surprising how events experienced before the age of four were not only not forgotten, but also so thoroughly recorded in memory, turned into traumatic memories.
The journey into childhood is not easy for her, and the viewer will have to go along with her along this path. Despite the fact that the sect has long been closed, a visit to the place where it was located, especially postponed in the perception. The director managed to show the very structure of memories, when things are remembered against will as if they happened yesterday. And these memories have the paradoxical property of not knowing whether they bring happiness or anxiety. The film does not give a moral assessment of the act of the criminal who stole the child. But there is no excuse for him either. It is a film about the injustice of a life in which one cannot find happiness. The woman tried to find happiness with another child, but involuntarily ruined his life. And in the end, everyone suffered. The director managed to express this total misfortune, but avoided depressive means of portrayal.
8 out of 10