Daughter (Dcera) is an animated short film (14 minutes) from the Czech Republic, directed by Daria Kashcheeva.
A woman sits in a hospital, where her father is lying on a hospital bed, apparently desperately ill. Suddenly a bird flies into the window, managing to punch clear through the glass before falling dead on the sill. The woman is forcibly reminded of a scene from her youth, when she brought an injured bird to her father. The father, who was busy preparing dinner at the time, rudely dismisses her. The moment is the beginning of an increasing distance between the once-close father and daughter.
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: No hint is given as to where the little girl's mother is.
- Call-Back: The little girl makes a bird mask at home. Years later, when the grown woman comes into her father's hospital room to find him gone, the bird mask, which he apparently kept for decades, is lying on his empty bed.
- Framing Device: A woman visits her dying father in the hospital. Their relationship plays out from there in a series of flashbacks.
- Gainax Ending: After the father and daughter have their moment of catharsis in the hospital, the film ends with another flashback to her as a little girl bringing the injured bird to her dad. This time, however, he takes it from her...and helps the bird, which is suddenly not injured, fly out the window. It's not clear what this is supposed to mean but it may symbolize the father dying; earlier in the film the father was conflated with the bird that crashed into the window.
- Imagine Spot: The little girl has an imagine spot where she's a bird that fell out of a nest, and her father picked her up.
- Jitter Cam: This movie got a lot of attention for using a Jitter Cam with Stop Motion animation, which is pretty rare. The camera does indeed jitter in a very realistic manner as the little girl frantically dashes up the stairs, dying bird in hand, to the apartment she shares with her dad. It happens again near the end when the grown daughter finds her father's hospital room empty, and runs out of the room in a panic trying to find him.
- Running into the Window: Played for drama, as a bird crashing right through a window and dying causes the woman to relive a painful memory from her past.
- Silence Is Golden: No dialogue in the film.
- Stop Motion: Papier-mache puppets, intricately animated, complete with blinking eyes.
