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El Father Plays Himself
Fiction and reality clash as father plays himself.
2020 · 105 min · Feature documentary · Venezuela, Italy, UK, USA
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- El Father Plays Himself
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- El Father Plays Himself
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The trailer
A young film director returns to Venezuela, inspired to make a film based on his father’s life in the Amazon jungle. He casts Father to play himself.
What starts as an act of love and ambition, filmmaking to more deeply understand the self and the other, spirals into a process which confronts Father’s struggles with addiction and his life devoid of his son.
EL FATHER PLAYS HIMSELF holds a steady lens to the way the act of cinema unearths, binds, heals and destroys.
World premiere at 51° Visions du Réel, Special Mention for Best International Feature.
“Riveting intensity. A tantalizing house of mirrors.”
The Hollywood Reporter
“Sincerely one of the best films of 2020.”
Criterion Cast
“Utterly engrossing.”
Sight & Sound
“A deeply human portrayal.”
Variety
“Explosive.”
Little White Lies
“Exquisite, one of the best documentaries about the power of filmmaking ever made.”
Toisto
“A fascinating, tragicomic mirror play about a complex but loving relationship.”
de Volkskrant
“A fascinating study of the extent to which filmic truth can be pushed.”
UK Film Review
“Exciting, inventive, original.”
Film Threat
4 distinctions
Selections and awards
Stills
From the film
Credits
A film by
Mo Scarpelli
Director
FEATURING
Jorge Thielen Armand
Jorge Roque Thielen
Producers
Manon Ardisson
Rodrigo Michelangeli
Executive Producers
Edward Power
Gordon Culley
Justin Madhany
Bart van den Broek
Associate Producers
Phoebe Hall
Zane Dawood
Joe Torres
Director of Photography
Mo Scarpelli
Editor
Juan Soto Taborda
Sound Design and Mix
Roberta Ainstein
Color
Joel Sahuleka
Picture Post Production
Feverfilm NL
Produced by Ardimages UK, Rake Films and La Faena Films, in association with Channel6 Media, Feverfilm and Tres Cinematografía.
Distribution with Grasshopper Film, Picl, and Rake Films / Ardimages / La Faena Films, with the support of the Torino Film Lab Audience Design Fund and Creative Europe MEDIA.
23 selections
Festivals and screenings
51° Visions du Réel
Special Mention for Best International Film
IDFA
Best of Festivals Selection
24° Festival de Cine de Málaga
Silver Biznaga for Best Direction
Festival de la Crítica Cinematográfica de Caracas
Special Jury Prize, Best Direction
37° Festival de Cine de Bogotá
Best Documentary on Art
17° Festival de Cine Venezolano
Best Cinematography, Best Director of Photography
Garden Route International Film Festival
Best Direction, Best Actor (Jorge Thielen Armand)
22° Lucania Film Festival
Special Mention for Best Feature Film
For press and programmers
Press kit and links
dropbox.com
Press kit, Englishdropbox.com
Press kit, Españolelfatherplayshimself.com
Official siteesp.elfatherplayshimself.com
Sitio oficialelfatherplayshimself.com
Screenings and streaminglafaenafilms.com
La Fortaleza, the film it followsKeep going
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