IN MY FATHER’S DEN

New Zealand, 2004, 125 minutes, Colour.
Matthew Mac Fadyen, Emily Barclay, Miranda Otto, Colin Moye.
Directed by Brad Mc Gann.

Now and again, you come upon a film that you have never heard of, don’t know the director or many of the people in the cast and it makes a strong impression on you. This was the case for In My Father’s Den, actually coming across it on a long Qantas flight (which gave me the time to watch it again). The brief description in the in-flight magazine pointed out that it was a New Zealand film.

In recent years, New Zealand film has meant The Piano, Whale Rider of, of course, the Lord of the Rings trilogy. However, though only a country with a population of around three million, New Zealand has had an effective film industry for some years as well as playing host, like Australia, to overseas blockbusters and smaller films. The forthcoming version of C.S. Lewis’s The Witch, the Lion and the Wardrobe was filmed in New Zealand.

In My Father’s Den is a more specialised film. It was made for an older audience, an audience that likes thoughtful, powerful, even challenging dramas. It takes its adult themes seriously and intelligently and is not looking for easy box-office. It is a co-production with the UK and some of the local lottery money has been allotted for production. It is a good investment.

A word of caution about the structure of the film. It requires attentiveness. The director, Brad Mc Gann, has adapted a popular New Zealand novel from the 1970s by Maurice Gee. He has advanced the action to the present. But there are many strands, a plot concerning a son returning home for his father’s funeral and several sub-plots concerning his older brother, concerning a young teenager and her aspirations to be a writer and to visit Spain and her mysterious disappearance.

However, the story is told in a great number of flashbacks – but not in the order you might expect. The effect is more like putting together a moving jigsaw puzzle, trying to find the pieces that connect with similar pieces. While this is more complicated, it makes the film more intriguing.

Ten years ago, Quentin Tarantino made this kind of storytelling part of the opening up of cinema in Pulp Fiction. The chronological end of the story takes place about two thirds the way through the film but we learn more about the character who has died. It is the same here.

British actor, Matthew Mac fadyen has appeared on television in Spooks and is about to be seen on screen as Mr Darcy in the new version of Pride and Prejudice. His character in In My Father’s Den is Paul, a war photo-journalist, who has escaped his home town and his family. What he reluctantly returns to is an enclosed world of family secrets and lies. Not only is he caught up in them, he finds himself accused of crimes. As the audience follows his story, they gain a greater sympathy for him but realise that ugly incidents from the past must be faced honestly.

The title of the film refers to the hidden room that Paul’s father retreated to. It is full of his books and music. But, there are also more sinister overtones to it.

The supporting cast includes Miranda Otto (Lord of the Rings, War of the Worlds) and young newcomer, Emily Barclay, who gives a sensitive performance as the young girl who discovers more secrets about her past.

By the end of the film, we realise that it is also a murder mystery and the solution is not what might have been expected.

1.The impact of this New Zealand story, mood, issues? Universal impact?

2.The New Zealand settings, the town, the house, the open countryside? The musical score and its mood?

3.The structure of the film: the basic narrative of Paul’s coming for the funeral? The gradual revelation of secrets and lies, the flashbacks, the glimpses, suggestions, moods, use of photos? The Tarantino-like structure and the actual and of the film taking place with events that happened two-thirds of the way through? The appropriateness of the ending?

4.The title, the visuals of the father’s den in itself, the music, the books, the globe? Paul’s visit, the memories, his father, the secret place, not telling his wife? Paul’s discovery, the music, the father inviting Paul to stay? The importance of the painting and the weeping woman, Paul’s deciding not to burn it? The ultimate portrayal of the den – Paul and his cleansing it? The irony of Celia and her finding the den – and the revelation of the link with Paul’s father?

5.The setting of the occasion, the father’s death, the funeral, the funeral words about him being a good man, the grief of his family? Paul and his absence from the funeral, his lie to Andrew?

6.Paul and his life away, the war correspondent, the photos, the nomination for the Pulitzer Prize? The reason for his leaving (and the visualising of this flashback several times)? The effect of alienation, wandering the world? His success, the conflicts he had seen, the Istanbul base? The talk at the school? Andrew and his wife, her introduction of herself, her knowing who she was? His encounter with Andrew, after the funeral, not wanting to stay with them? His staying in the town, the going back to the den, the discoveries, the atlas, the baby photo and his curiosity? The memories of his mother? The school, the students, the meeting of Celia in the den, wanting to get rid of her? The meetings, the sharing, her story, the competition and her success? The relationship between Paul and Celia? His verifying the truth about her with the hospital records? Her disappearance, the accusations, the effect, the hostility of people, being dismissed from the school?

7.The gradual revelation of his past, the memories, the two as boys, the father and his expectations, the mother, the graphic horror of her death, feeling responsibility, Paul walking away, leaving Andrew with the truth? The truth of the past, the truth of the present? A basis for the future?

8.Celia, the opening of the film, the voice-over and her story, the attitudes of the townspeople, the silence? Her place in the town, her relationship with her mother, the brutality of her stepfather? Tension, at school, sharing with her girlfriend, Jonathan and his attraction towards her? Andrew and Penny and their attitudes? The visits? In the den, Paul’s discovery of her, her writing? Admiration for Paul at school? Her being abrupt, cheeky? The visits, the talks, her being encouraged by Paul? The reactions? Her disappearance? The reality of the truth, Jonathan’s reaction? The visit to Penny and Andrew, the revelation of her death? The accident? The police and their severity and interrogating Paul? The issues? The final sequences and the audience knowing that she was dead, Paul giving her the ticket to Spain (and its later use against him)? The end and her walking down the road in hope, the irony of what actually happened?

9.Celia’s mother, Jax, the relationship with Paul when they were children, the sexual encounter, the precocious attitudes? Her relationship with Paul in the past, audience assumptions that he was, perhaps, Celia’s father? The age and lack of experience? His leaving, her staying, marrying, the altering of the birth certificate? Her husband and his harshness, brutality, Paul challenging him, fighting him? The effect of Paul’s return, their meetings, discussions, the old bonds? Celia, the certificate? The realisation of what had happened, her grief at her daughter’s disappearance? Reactions to her death? The sketch of a trapped girl, her past and the relationship with Paul’s father, the brutal husband, the sense of loss?

10.Andrew, at the funeral, his work with the emus and the virus, his relationship with Penny, with Jonathan? The older brother, the flashbacks of Paul walking away? His reaction to Paul’s return, the clashes, the lawyers and Paul’s lack of cooperation, the passport? His being a man of responsibility, knowing what happened? His marrying Penny, Paul’s comment that Penny was like their mother? His relationship with her, her primness? With Jonathan, Paul’s gift of the camera and his taking photos, Jonathan and his taking the photos of Celia, the sexual overtones, Andrew’s anger? Celia, the audience not knowing the truth, the revelation of her visit, Penny’s being responsible for her death, Andrew and his disposing of the body, his lies? Jonathan, his grief, revealing the truth to Paul?

11.The sketch of the people in the town, the students at the school, the sympathetic teacher, the unsympathetic police and the brutality of their interrogations – and Paul’s lack of cooperation?

12.The portrait of the father gradually built up, seeing him in the den, the meaning of his life, creativity, privacy, his relationship with his sons, close to Paul, distant from Andrew? Andrew giving him his father’s ashes? His relationship with his wife, the truth, the relationship with Jax, his wife’s suicide? The will and the mystery of the division into three?

13.Paul as the focus of the film, intellectually, emotionally, the audience sharing his journey, the secrets – and the destruction?

14.The emotional response to the film with response to the characters – and especially because of the complexity of the structure?