In My Father's Den (2004)

Director:

Brad McGann

Writers:

Maurice Gee (novel)
Brad McGann (screenplay)

Release Date:

7 October 2004 (New Zealand)

Genre:

Mystery | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Who you set out to be isn't always who you become.

Plot:

A disillusioned war journalist's return home is blighted when he becomes implicated in the mysterious disappearance of a teenage girl he has befriended.

Plot Keywords:

Journalist | Murder | Prodigal Son | Bath | Female Nudity

Awards:

19 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Matthew Macfadyen	...	Paul Prior
Miranda Otto	...	Penny
Emily Barclay	...	Celia Steimer
Colin Moy	...	Andrew
Jimmy Keen	...	Jonathon
Jodie Rimmer	...	Jackie
Toby Alexander	...	Paul as a teenager
Vicky Haughton	...	Ms Seagar
Nicholas Hayward	...	Andrew as a teenager
Liam Herbert	...	Andrew as a child
Vanessa Riddell	...	Iris
Asher Emanuel	...	Paul as a child
Matthew Chamberlain	...	Jeff
Peter Hishon	...	Vet
Mabel Wharekawa	...	Winnie (as Mabel Burt)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content, language, some violence and drug use.

Runtime:

127 min

Country:

New Zealand | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:M18 (International Version) | USA:R | Germany:12 | Portugal:M/16 | Sweden:15 (TV rating) | Australia:MA | Canada:PG | Ireland:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Singapore:M18 (cut) | Singapore:R21 | UK:15 (cut)

Filming Locations:

Alexandra, Otago, New Zealand

Company:

IFMD Ltd.

Trivia:

The wartime photographs used for the film were taken by South African photojournalist Greg Marinovich. The photograph of the child was taken by Romano Cagnoni.

Quotes:

Celia Steimer: Did you know? Did you know?... I know what you did when you took the photo of that girl - you walked away and left her, so you withdrew the entry so you wouldn't have to deal with it... Was she just like me? Was she just someone you could pick up and throw away and forget about?... How do you live with yourself?

Soundtrack:

Free Money

Seriously worthwhile Kiwi film-making

A compelling story, half melodrama, half thriller, set in a quiet and fairly isolated region of New Zealand.

Two brothers meet up after a long separation and dark secrets from the past slowly unravel on a collision course with present day reality. Paul is a Pulitzer nominated war photographer who left home still quite young and is now deeply resented by sibling Andrew. Their father has died and split the Will three ways. There is further tension from Paul's ex-girlfriend Jackie, and a mysterious 16yr old, Celia. A concatenation of events draws Paul into knots of suspicion and trust, which the film juxtaposes with increasingly frequent flashbacks explaining shadowy glimpses of shame beneath façades of uprightness.

The beauty that first struck me about In My Father's Den was how it brought back to me the quietude of New Zealand, the untainted landscape where you can almost hear your own thoughts - and also the Kiwi ability to express much (for good or bad) without saying much. Having sat through a mainstream film immediately before this one, I had to do a 'gear shift' to concentrate enough to follow what was happening. This has it's own reward, and one of the reasons why art house movies have such impact – the *active* attention and listening that is required (as opposed to the spoon-fed nature of Hollywood movies) means a greater investment of one's own energy, and the result, when worthwhile, becomes internalised to a greater degree. Perhaps there should be a word such as 'internalism' to mean the opposite of 'escapism', for that is what we also do when we make the effort to understand, to achieve an active empathy, and so find qualities in a film that resonate more deeply with us than can entertainment alone.

What I found rather sad is what has happened to the film even with the present day's more relaxed attitude to censorship. The British Board of Film Censors website entry on this movie reports: "The distributor chose to remove a scene which showed consensual asphyxiation in a sexual context in order to achieve a '15'. An uncut '18' was available to the distributor." So UK law and our film censors would allow adults to see an uncut a work of artistic merit (one that was part financed by UK Lottery money) but UK financial interests (distributors with an eye to maximising ticket sales) will not.

In My Father's Den is not without faults – the intercut flashbacks towards the end come with such alarming rapidity that it is almost confusing, and some of the characterisation (like a 16yr old girl who writes world class poetry), however moving, can seem far-fetched. But overall the flaws are worth overlooking to enjoy the painting.