FATHER (OTAC) is the winner of the 2020 CIFF Best International Narrative Feature.

In a small town in Serbia, Nikola, a day laborer and father of two, is ordered to give up his children to social services after poverty and hunger drive his wife to commit a desperate act. Until he can provide adequate conditions for their upbringing, the children will be placed in foster care.

Despite Nikola’s best efforts and several appeals, social services refuses to return his children, leaving him feeling hopeless. But when Nikola discovers the local administration may be corrupt, he decides to travel across Serbia on foot and take his case directly to the national ministry in Belgrade.

Against all odds and driven by love and despair, this father refuses to give up on justice and his right to raise his children.