The Father

Director: Florian Zeller
Screenwriters: Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller

Institute History

  • 2020 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Almost 80, mischievous, caustic, and defiantly living alone, Anthony (Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins) rejects each and every hired caretaker that his daughter, Anne (Academy Award winner Olivia Colman), lovingly introduces. Anne is desperate for help. She can’t make daily visits anymore, and Anthony’s grip on reality is unraveling. Given the ebb and flow of his memory, how much of his own identity and past can he cling to? Anne grieves the loss of her father as he lives and breathes before her—but doesn’t she have the right to live her own life?

Spectacular performances from Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman could garner them both more Oscar glory. The Father is the astonishing feature debut of writer-director Florian Zeller, based on his award-winning play, which rightfully begged comparisons to King Lear. Mind-boggling, heartbreaking, and uncompromisingly poignant, this mesmerizing chamber piece questions the truth and the nature of reality as it cunningly lays bare the frailty of the human condition.

— D.C.

Screening Details

Credits

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