Why did you Return?

As an audience member, I am left wondering the same thing as Ivan was. Why did the father come back? Why did he leave in the first place? Many questions were left unanswered in this visual masterpiece.

In this film, St. Petersburg did not feel the same at all. It was probably on the outskirts of the city in the first place, but the mother was not particularly worried about her children running all over the city. It did not seem like there was the same type of fear in the air. It definitely had more of an air of stability in it.

The mother seems to be wary of the father returning. she does not seem particularly pleased. She is tentative around him, and tentative to let her boys go off with him. She whispers when he is not in the room, particularly at the children's bedside.

In my mind, the father is a negative character. If my father returned in the middle of my childhood, I would have been unbelievably angry. He never provides a reason for his absence. He never tries to explain himself. He just acts like nothing has ever happened. I would have acted very similarly to Ivan did. He is less accepting of his father and questions his motives. I would have become incensed when i did not return after the agreed upon two days. Especially without my mother being aware of what was going on.

I do not htink we ever find out why he brought his boys along. I think he would have been better off without bringing them. Something may have been planned for after he recovered whatever he found, but we do not have an idea.

The title of the film is very ambiguous. Is it referring to the father's return? Is it referring to the boy's return home? or perhaps the boy's return of the father to the boat? I think it referred to all of these things, principally the father's return. This movie examines the two possible reactions to a father returning after being absent for a majority of a child's life. Andrey welcomes him with open arms while Ivan does very little to welcome him back.