It’s been five years since iconoclastic filmmaker Jim Jarmusch last graced the big screen with his zombie comedy “The Dead Don’t Die” in 2019, but the long wait is finally over. Now the American auteur is finally back with “Father Mother Sister Brother,” a triptych family drama that underscores his fascination with the quiet rhythms of human connection and the absurdities that underpin everyday life.
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One of the immediate surprises from the project is its casting order: Tom Waits receives top billing. While Cate Blanchett and Adam Driver are the more obvious star names, Jarmusch’s longtime collaborator has been a fixture in his cinema since “Down by Law” in 1986. Waits later voiced the DJ in “Mystery Train,” shared a vignette with Iggy Pop in “Coffee and Cigarettes,” and played the eccentric Hermit Bob in “The Dead Don’t Die.” “Father Mother Sister Brother” marks his fifth collaboration with Jarmusch, extending one of the director’s most enduring creative partnerships.
The film stars Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Sarah Greene, Indya Moore, Luka Sabbat, and Françoise Lebrun. Produced by Charles Gillibert, Joshua Astrachan, Carter Logan, and Atilla Salih Yücer, the film is distributed in the U.S. by MUBI.
Structured in three chapters—”Father” set in the Northeastern United States, “Mother” in Dublin, and “Sister Brother” in Paris—the film explores the relationships between adult children, their somewhat distant parents, and each other.
Here’s the official synopsis:
FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER is a feature film, though carefully constructed in the form of a triptych. The three stories all concern the relationships between adult children, their somewhat distant parent (or parents), and each other. Each of the three chapters takes place in the present, and each in a different country. FATHER is set in the Northeast US, MOTHER in Dublin, Ireland, and SISTER BROTHER in Paris, France. The film is a series of character studies, quiet, observational and non-judgmental – a comedy, but interwoven with threads of melancholy.
“Father Mother Sister Brother” will world premiere at the Venice Film Festival before screening at the New York Film Festival. It then opens in U.S. theaters on December 24, with MUBI set to roll out additional theatrical dates in other territories at a later time.
Watch for our Venice review soon, and in the meantime, watch the trailer below.
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