Through the Eyes of A Boy (1/3)

Sinopsis :
Romulus Gaita fled his home in his native Yugoslavia in 1935 at the age of 28, and emigrated to Australia on an assisted passage in 1950 with his young wife Christine and their four-year-old son Raimond soon after the end of World War II. Romulus and his family were transferred to Bonegilla, a migrant reception and clearing camp near Wodonga. Romulus was then sent to Baringhup on the Loddon River, where he met two Romanian brothers Pantelimon (known as Hora) and Demitru (known as Mitru).

The Gaitas later moved to a farmhouse called Frogmore where they lived for the next ten years, and where Raimond spent much of his childhood.

Christine does not stay at Frogmore to take on the responsibility as a wife and mother. She has an affair with Mitru and moves to Melbourne to be with him, and has two daughters with him. Mitru commits suicide before the birth of the second child, and Christine later also commits suicide. Both daughters are adopted. Raimond observes in retrospect that Christine likely had a mental illness.

After some attempts at farming, Romulus establishes a business supplying wrought iron furniture, popular at the time, and using some of the skills he brought from his native country.

Romulus also suffers from mental illness, requiring admission to a psychiatric hospital. While Romulus was unable to care for Raimond, Hora came and lived with Raimond and cared for him.

Romulus later largely recovered from his mental illness, and saw Raimond live to adulthood and pursue his chosen career. Romulus later suffered heart problems and eventually died of a blood clot.

It is the tale of a boy trying to balance a universe described by his deeply moral father, against the experience of heartbreaking absence and neglect from a depressive mother. It is, ultimately, a story of impossible love that celebrates the unbreakable bond between father and son.

The story of Romulus, My Father details the struggle of many immigrants during and after the Second World War, and how these adversities were faced and sometimes overcome.

It portrays the never dwindling love of Romulus for his son Raimond, in spite of the challenges of being abandoned by his wife and the confusion caused by his mental illness.

Nota Jase :
Telah lama saya mencari DVD Romulus, My Father lakonan matap Eric Bana yang juga mendapat kritik memberansangkan daripada para pengkritik filem. Filem ini bergerak aga perlahan tetapi jika diamati dengan mata hati ia adalah sebuah karya yang amat bermakna dan mendalam. Sebuah kisah benar yang diangkat sendiri oleh penulis novel ini yang juga seorang ahli falsafah Australia, Raimond Gaita yang menulis kisah ayah beliau Romulus Gaita (1922- 1996). Dalam Halaman 74 di dalam autobiografi Romulus, My Father, Raimond menulis "On many occasions in my life I have had the need to say, and thankfully have been able to say: I know what a good workman is; I know what an honest man is; I know what friendship is; I know because I remember these things in the person of my father."