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

All That's Left of You

Dir. Cherien Dabis
145 min

Jordan's submission for the Academy Awards, All That's Left of You makes the most of its epic format to chronicle seven decades of Palestinian history while tracking the psychological impact of cycles of exile and oppression on three generations.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

L'Étranger

Dir. François Ozon
122 min

Recreating 1940s Algeria in vivid, high contrast black and white cinematography, L'Etranger is erotic, enigmatic and brutal in equal measures, a masterful screen version of Albert Camus's insoluble classic of existential alienation.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Sentimental Value

Dir. Joachim Trier
135 min

A once-revered director crashes back into his family’s lives, eager to recruit his daughter for a film role. When she declines, he finds a new muse in an eager but unpolished Hollywood star, sending his botched reconciliation spiraling into chaos.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Holding Liat

Dir. Brandon Kramer
97 min

An intimate, moving film about the parents of one of the Oct 7 Jewish hostages taken by Hamas, and their campaign for a speedy, peaceful resolution to the crisis. Winner: Best Documentary, Berlin Film Festival

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Mother and the Bear

Dir. Johnny Ma
100 min

Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Islands

Dir. Jan-Ole Gerster
123 min

In this sly, engrossing mystery, a dissolute English tennis coach in a Canary Islands holiday resort falls under suspicion when the husband of a beautiful guest disappears after a night of heavy drinking...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre