In My Father's Den

Tuesday 14th February

Dir: Brad McGann New Zealand / Ireland / UK 2004 126 minutes 16

Cast: Matthew MacFadyen, Miranda Otto, Emily Barclay, Colin Moy




Treatment and perspective, rather than subject or plot, are the winning features of In My Father's Den, the debut feature from New Zealander Brad McGann, which won the FIPRESCI prize at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival.Matthew Macfadyen portrays Paul, a veteran photojournalist, first shown returning to his isolated New Zealand hometown for the funeral of his father. It is his first visit in 15 years, and the not unexpected strains with his stay-at-home brother quickly emerge.The stage seems set for a familiar family melodrama, complete with the muted tone and painful conversations associated with the genre's more hackneyed formulas. However McGann, who adapted Maurice Gee's novel, introduces the first in a series of shifts which feel as emotionally logical as they sound merely abrupt.Soon Paul is living in a remote cottage near a hideaway his father maintained and which the son discovered in his youth. This is the den of the title, a cosy lair filled with books, a globe, a comfortable chair and wine, all of which clearly represented the wider world to both father and son.The den means the same to the film's second significant character, a 15-year-old girl named Celia (remarkably well played by Emily Barclay), one of Paul's students. When the two begin a tight friendship, which belies the 16 years between them, not surprisingly, the relationship raises local eyebrows.In a final twist that some might find too flamboyant, others in keeping with the material, the film reveals that no one knew — or remembered — the truth after all. -Henry Sheehan / © FIPRESCI 2004

Brad McGann (born New Zealand, 1964) studied at the University of Otago and the Swinburne Film and Television School in Melbourne. He directed the drama It Never Rains (96) and the documentary Come As You Are (co-director, 96) for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He also directed the award-winning short film Possum (96). In My Father’s Den (04) is his first feature.

“Original and poetic. Touchingly honest and heavily charged.” - Sunday Telegraph“Beautifully accomplished and taut as a wire.” - The Times

“One of the best films ever to have come out of New Zealand...full of clever twists.” - Sunday Express

Winner - Golden Hitchcock, Silver Hitchcock, Prix Kodak / 16th Dinard British Film FestivalWinner - Special Jury Prize / Seattle

International film Festival 2005Winner - FIPRESCI Prize / Toronto International Film Festival 2004