CHENNAI: In Titus Kaphar’s 'Exhibiting Forgiveness', a line goes, “Relationships are hard.” This is especially true when it comes to the “smouldering embers” of a broken bond between a father and son. The indie film that played in the US Dramatic Competition section at the Sundance Film Festival, is an intense exploration of the violence underlying toxic familial ties and its after-effects.
Tarrell (Andre Holland) is a Black artist finding appreciation, recognition, and success for his work. He is happily married to musician Aisha (singer-songwriter Andra Day). But a sudden visit from his estranged dad brings back nightmares of the past, upsets the balance in the present and threatens to block the road to the future. He looms large as a danger to Tarrell’s professional, personal and familial happiness and balance, a force that might undo and raze to ground all that he has built over the years.
Kaphar’s narrative takes us back and forth in time as a continuum of pain, inheritance of hurt, and a perennial struggle to break free of wounds and scars. How long can you stay in denial? How difficult is it to confront the truth and then move beyond and ahead? How to forget and forgive? Does healing lie in the act of creation? Can pain be channelled into paintings, trauma turned to art? Will Tarrell’s work help him find reconciliation, liberation, redemption, and peace?
Having been a visual artist himself, Kaphar combines art with cinema. He uses paintings as a parallel narrative of its own, exteriorising protagonists’ states of mind and movements in life and reinforcing the themes of the film—toxic parenting, violated childhood and the effects of both on sundry lives.
It’s ironic how a story of violence and violation gets aesthetically constructed and movingly crafted. A film that is sensitive as well as provocative, a thoughtful and spiritual food for the soul. Kaphar peels layers upon layers as we travel in time. Tarrell goes back to the neighbourhood he grew up in to bring his devout mother, Joyce (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), home. It’s no coincidence that his father, La’Ron (John Earl Jelks), comes calling soon after, his seeming sobriety and search for reconciliation feeding Tarrell’s suspicions. Has this been engineered by Joyce to take one last shot at building a happy family? How could she have not protected her son in the past from the malevolent husband? How can she still throw him back at Tarrell? How would it impact Tarrell’s own wife, kid and family?
Kaphar has called Exhibiting Forgiveness a personal film, “rooted in lived experience”, with most characters drawn from people he has known and loved. “Not every moment is pulled from life, but there is truth in every scene,” he said, the reason why it makes for a challenging and uncomfortable watch. It cuts too close to the bone when it comes to its portrayal of the relationship dynamic. The human drama relies heavily on performances and a finely tuned ensemble of powerful actors makes it even more relatable.
Tarrell’s non-judgmental approach embraces shades of grey rather than seeing things in black and white. He doesn’t vilify anyone, nor does he try and mine heroism in suffering. The tale of generational toxicity, hurt and healing makes for tough and acute viewing and underscores the fact that even after forgetting and forgiving we may not find closures, memories will be equal parts dreams and nightmares, and that life is an ongoing journey with its own ups and downs, pains and pleasures, sins and salvation.
Cinema Without Borders
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Film: Exhibiting Forgiveness