An understanding

The Stockholm-based filmmaker describes Jag har fattat (I have understood) as “probably the most profound experience on a shoot I have ever experienced and maybe the most touching film I’ve ever made”.

Frost’s friend, the actor/singer Robin Narazi lost his father Karim in 2004 but, growing up in a culture where vulnerability was seen as weakness and silence was seen as strength, he was unable to express his emotions – instead his grief turned to rage. 

Produced by New Land and Nuet, the film comprises genuine family VHS home movie footage of the father and his baby son, along with tender scenes of Nazari, years later, performing a “poem to dad” (in Swedish and Kurdish) to his mother and sister, revealing for the first time the emotions he has misunderstood and repressed. 

The restrained tone, poignant score – cowritten by Frost – and authenticity of the performances make the viewer feel privileged to be witnessing such an intimate and heartfelt story of a man coming to terms with his pain. 

His poetry touches on a wider pain, “when we lost Kurdistan on the atlas”, with the home movies hinting at a Kurdish family struggling to retain their culture.