Argentine director Pablo Trapero presented his new film on Tuesday for the first time in Europe at the London Film Festival.
Unveiling &Sons, the filmmaker said “people from all over the world can identify” with this film.
The film, presented internationally for the first time in September at the Toronto Film Festival in Canada, is the story of a famous writer suffering from an existential crisis.
The man of letters, scarred by a broken relationship with his children and ex-wife, is convinced that his life is nearing its end and calls them all to talk about the past.
Trapero, 54, who won the Silver Lion at the 2015 Venice Film Festival for the movie i(“The Clan”), explained that &Sons recreates a "family portrait."
"Naturally, we're not only talking about Andrew [Dyer, the main character] and his family. It also provides us, the spectators, with the opportunity to reflect on our own dynamics and relationships," Trapero added.
"That, I think, is one of the greatest strengths of &Sons. It's something with which people from all over the world can identify," the Argentine director pointed out.
The film is not up for any competition at the 69th edition of the London Film Festival, which runs October 8 to 19 in the British capital.
The production, with a screenplay by Canadian Sarah Polley, is an adaptation of the novel &Sons by American writer David Gilbert, who published it in 2013, and the Spanish version, which was translated as El extravagante señor Dyer (“The extravagant Mr Dyer”).
The main character of this Argentine-British-Canadian co-production is writer Andrew Dyer, played by British actor Bill Nighy.
Another British actor, George McKay, one of the writer's four children in the film, was at the presentation and stressed that the film dissects family relations.
"It's about the repercussions and consequences of how we are with our loved ones and what that means for the people closest to us," McKay said.
Another Brit, Johnny Flynn, who plays another son, stated that he finds it "fascinating, from a psychological standpoint," to delve into family relations.
In the film, according to Flynn, "there is someone the world loves [the character of his father, Andrew], but you have this personal trauma in your experience with him."
Yet another Brit, Arthur Conti, who plays another of the author's sons, called Trapero "brilliant" and screenwriter Polley "a genius."
The movie is Trapero’s 11th feature film. An exponent of the new wave of Argentine film, which emerged in the mid-1990s, he directed his first feature film, Mundo grúa (“Crane World”), in 1999.
He was nominated for a Goya award in the Best Ibero-American Film section, an award he eventually won in 2015 with El Clan.
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