The Father

Local title
Isa
Title in Russian
Отец
Original title
The Father
Director
Florian Zeller
Country
United Kingdom, France
Year
2020
Programme
Screen International Critics' Choice

Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman play characters locked in a battle of wills that neither can win in “The Father”, a deeply moving, quietly unnerving domestic drama about dementia which is pitiless in its depiction of how that illness strips away everything from those afflicted — and the persons closest to them.

Adapting his own acclaimed play, Florian Zeller (making his feature directorial debut) takes a commonplace scenario — an adult daughter must decide what to do about her ailing parent — and infuses it with bleak insight about aging and death. Hopkins gets the showier role as a lion-in-winter patriarch who refuses to yield to his worsening condition, but Colman is his match, delivering a performance of almost inexpressible heartbreak.

Tim Grierson

Director
Florian Zeller
Screenwriter
Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller
Cast
Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, Olivia Williams
Producer
Simon Friend, Christophe Spadone, Philippe Carcassonne, Jean-Louis Livi, David Parfitt
DoP
Ben Smithard
Editor
Yorgos Lamprinos
Music
Ludovico Einaudi
Production
Trademark Films, Cine@, F Comme Film, Film4, Viewfinder World Sales: Embankment Films
Runtime
Language
English
Subtitles
Estonian, Russian
Trailer