The relationships between fathers and sons are not shallow or trivial when they have been broken by separation during important years in the psychosocial integration of the boy. According to the idea that a common viewer has of "action", it seems that nothing happens in «Bright Nights». However, there is intense dramatic action, according to the Aristotelian definition of action, determined by a conflict: a movement from point A to B, in which the protagonists change, even if it the change is minimal: at the end of the film, there is a glimpse of understanding between Michael, the father (Georg Friedrich), and his son Luis (Tristan Göbel).
The death of Michael's father is the trigger for his reunion with his son Luis, whom he has not seen for many years: he lives in Berlin, his son in the countryside and his father lived in Norway, so Michael did not see him again after he emigrated. By losing his father, Michael unconsciously realizes that he is duplicating his father-son relationship in the one he has with Luis, so he asks the 14-year-old boy to accompany him to the funeral of his grandfather. Only the two of them, a woman priest and an official, attend the funeral. Unbeknownst to Luis, Michael has planned to spend a few summer days together, when the days are long and there is still sunlight at midnight. The process is not easy, the stay is tense, friction is frequent, and confrontation soon occurs.
Director Thomas Arslan's method is observational, he does not judge or take sides with anyone. Perhaps music at some moments appears as an unnecessary resource, when the emotion is obvious, and foremost because Arslan's visual strategy evokes the Scandinavian lyrical realism, which came to film through adaptations of novels by Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf (first woman writer to win the Nobel Prize), such as Victor Sjöström's «The Phantom Chariot» (1921) and Mauritz Stiller's «Gosta Berling's Saga» (1924).
Lyrical realism had a marked influence of Romanticism, evident in the treatment of landscapes, turning nature into a mental projection of the characters. Open, vast, and luminous panoramas predominate in the entire film, such as the attitude of Michael and Luis towards the adventure on which they embark in northern Norway. And it becomes evident, when just before the most dramatic confrontation, father and son travel through gray and foggy roads, contrasted with the green spaces that they cross after the climax.
An admirable and well-made film, with magnificent performances by Georg Friedrich as Michael (winner of the Best Actor award at the Berlin film festival) and by Tristan Göbel as Luis. «Bright Nights» runs only 86 minutes in good tempo, but it is not a happy film nor does it seek a happy ending. It may not be fully appreciated by those who have never been close to this type of father-son conflict... or who deny having experienced it.
