Like Father

Joe, a forty-year-old former miner, lives only for his music. And indeed he teaches music in a home for the mentally handicapped and sometimes earns a little extra cash playing at parties or retirement homes. His son Michael has stopped showing him respect and his wife has decided to leave him. So Joe moves into a caravan on the outskirts of town and the only thing he has left to enjoy is composing. In fact he’s been offered a commission to write a piece of music to launch a landscape development programme organised by the local council. But this causes trouble with his father, Arthur, because the older man lives in a wooden house on an allotment which will be absorbed into the construction project. This psychological drama very realistically depicts life in northern England. The bonds between the three male generations – Joe, his son Michael and his father Arthur – are portrayed in minimalistic fashion. Despite initial misunderstandings, they discover a way to reach each other which has long been blocked by past tragedy – the death of Joe’s brother. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)