Skip to main content
Father Mother Sister Brother film image; two women looking closely at a book

Father Mother Sister Brother

Special Presentations

© Vague Notion

This event has passed

Canadian Premiere

Jim Jarmusch is a master of short form cinema, evidenced not only by the diner compendium Coffee and Cigarettes, but in his early films Down by Law, Mystery Train, and Night on Earth, each of which wrapped simple vignettes into a pungent narrative bouquet. So it seems fitting that the erstwhile Young Turk of the 1980s indie scene should return to this format in his 70s, reuniting with Down by Law–star Tom Waits, who plays a reclusive father visited by his grown children (Adam Driver and Mayim Bialik) in the first of three filially minded tales.

In the second episode, Cate Blanchette and Vicky Krieps play sisters visiting their novelist mother (Charlotte Rampling) in Dublin, while in the triptych’s final segment Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat play twins called back to their Paris apartment to address a family tragedy. Subtle and understated, wry and moving, Father Mother Sister Brother is Jarmusch at his best: minimalist with an unerring eye for the essence of things.

 

Golden Lion, Venice 2025

Oct 10: Intro by cinematographer Frederick Elmes

 

Media Partner

Director

Jim Jarmusch

Cast

Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Kriep

Credits
Country of Origin

USA/Ireland/France

Year

2025

Language

In English and French with English subtitles

18+

At Vancouver Playhouse

19+

At The Rio

110 min
Award Winners Drama Family Relations Legendary Filmmakers
badjetlag, CG Cinema, Hail Mary Pictures

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Producer

Joshua Astrachan, Carter Logan, Atilla Salih Yücer, Charles Gillibert, Richard Bolger

Screenwriter

Jim Jarmusch

Cinematography

Frederick Elmes, Yorick Le Saux

Editor

Affonso Gonçalves

Production Design

Mark Friedberg, Marco Bittner Rosser

Original Music

Jim Jarmusch, Anika

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Meadowlarks

Dir. Tasha Hubbard
91 min

Fifty years after being separated during the Sixties Scoop, four Cree siblings reunite for the first time on a long weekend trip to Banff. Tasha Hubbard’s sensitive drama relates an emotional and life-affirming story of kinship and belonging.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Mistress Dispeller

Dir. Elizabeth Lo
94 min

Sensing her husband has strayed, a Chinese woman hires a mistress dispeller to insinuate herself between the lovers and sow enough doubt to break up the liaison. A documentary.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Jay Kelly

Dir. Noah Baumbach
130 min

In Noah Baumbach's wise and witty comedy, George Clooney plays Jay Kelly, a world-famous movie star touring Europe with his friend and manager, Ron (Adam Sandler). Faced with nagging dissatisfaction, Jay starts to ask himself some tough questions.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk

Dir. Sepideh Farsi
113 min

A joyous and heartrending introduction to 25-year-old Palestinian photographer and artist Fatma Hassona, living under siege in Gaza.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Peter Hujar's Day

Dir. Ira Sachs
76 min

Ben Whishaw is extraordinary in this conjuring trick of a movie from Ira Sachs (Passages), a minimalist masterpiece recreating a conversation between New York photographer Hujar and writer Linda Rosenkrantz in 1974.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Wisdom of Happiness

Dir. Philip Delaquis & Barbara Miller
90 min

An audience with the Dalai Lama, who, at 90, looks back on his life and shares the tenets of Buddhism as a practical guide to surviving the 21st Century with joy and compassion.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre