An hour and a half picture can be safely attributed to the “Other movies” section. It describes the events of several days, the film has a strange ending and is sure to make the viewer think. There is no happy ending in the tape, but the film cannot be classified as a tragedy either. Even the name “John and the Hole” looks strange and ambiguous.
In the center of the story is a teenager. At thirteen, he can’t figure out the square root of 225, but he intuitively knows the answer. John goes to tennis and already knows how to drive a car. He lives in a spacious house with his older sister and parents, he has the opportunity to splash in a private pool and play computer games for hours, sitting by a huge plasma in his personal room. But something is wrong with him, he is preoccupied with something and cannot even understand what he wants. His father gave him regular toys in the form of quadrocopters. Launching the aircraft, John finds a strange structure near his house. This is something like a concrete well 6-7 meters deep.
One day he decides to try sleeping pills, mixes it into a drink and treats the gardener. A strong man fell off his feet and slept for several hours under the bushes. The next evening, John slips the potion into his parents’ and sister’s dinner. On a dark night, he ferries the sound-sleeping people from the bedroom to the bottom of the well he has discovered. Three adults become his captives and hostages. He throws them some food, after the first day he brings warm clothes. Their anger is indescribable, but any attempts to get out of the stone captivity are unsuccessful. They have to go to the toilet in plastic bags and sleep, hugging tightly.
But for John, the “golden days” are coming – now no one asks him about marks, does not make him nervous or annoying. He can play loudly for hours, eat everything that is in the refrigerator. He has a large amount of money and a cool father’s SUV at his disposal. A teenager finds ways to hide the disappearance of his parents. We left for a sanatorium, asked not to disturb, went to the hospital for examination – this is a list of his endless excuses. Yes, and no one has really missed it yet: the modern way of life, the absence of a large number of neighbors, remote work allow you to manipulate a few contacts. Some people can just send text messages from their phone. He even managed to fire the housekeeper and the gardener.
For a whole day, his brother comes to him. He rides a peer in a car, the boys fool around in the pool, learn to hold their breath and even quarrel to the point of a fight. Before leaving, John gives a considerable amount to his brother, but he refuses the money. The trickster manages to deceive his relatives as well. Sometimes he remembers his captives and brings them some food and water. They are terribly hungry and exhausted. Their anger passed, and there was simply no strength left to scream and demand something. One day, John cooked risotto and took a dish of wine to the people closest to him. They ate greedily with their hands and began to thank him for such a chic dinner. A few days later, they looked at him in a completely different way – as a savior and messiah.
The teenager missed a number of tennis practices. His coach said that with such an attitude towards sports, it is stupid to think about competitions. The mentor wanted to talk to his mother, but for the sake of conspiracy, John announced that he would no longer attend the section. Very soon, longing and anxiety began to overcome him, the boy came to understand that his game as an adult would certainly end. A day later, he lowered an iron ladder to the bottom of the well.
The trio of former captives got up and walked slowly through the garden towards their home. A terrible picture awaited them near the pool – the body of their son and brother was floating upside down. They rushed into the water screaming, but John was just imitating a drowned man. This was followed by a scene of the work of a loader, which covered the strange and abandoned object with earth. The film ends with an episode of a homemade dinner with wine. Everyone is silent and absolutely calm. John did not receive any punishment, he was not sent to a mental hospital, he was not sent to a prison for juvenile delinquents. Everyone pretended that nothing had happened. It’s just that now they began to look at the youngest member of the family with different eyes.
What did the author of the picture want to say? What was Nicolas Giacobone hinting at? The film received a number of awards, but was not screened at the Cannes Film Festival due to the coronavirus epidemic. The jury and participants viewed it remotely. The tape will be of interest to everyone involved in education and child psychology. A viewer with a medical background can diagnose a guy. A brutal worker, living from payday to advance payment, would certainly have nailed his “son” for such an act. The tape may seem like a spit in the soul to those who live on three dollars a day and will never have one percent of the benefits that a teenager enjoyed. Yes, John’s parents did not tail him, made comments and “threw”, leaving for work. But he didn’t need anything! Was he really that offended? Why does material abundance make violent psychopaths out of children?
The director even made a hint by inserting several abstract scenes into the picture. They describe moments that are difficult to attach to the current characters of the plot. A windy mother informs her twelve-year-old daughter that she is leaving for a year. The girl will live by herself in a huge house, eating from the available supplies. The child asks to take her with him, but the mother will obviously be uncomfortable with the new gentleman. The mother reassures her daughter and says that the housing has been paid for a year in advance. A careless and irresponsible lady only consoles her baby: “You are already big and don’t skip school.”
See the picture “John and the Hole”, draw your own conclusions and competent conclusions.
