'Father Mother Sister Brother', small stories of big family dramas

Three stories about the relationships between adult children and parents who are quite distant, and between siblings. Each of the three parts is set in the present and each takes place in a different country:

'Father' in the north-east of the United States, 'Mother' in Dublin, and 'Sister Brother' in Paris.

Jarmusch is one of the greatest directors of American cinema in recent decades - capital works such as 'Daunbailò', 'Dead Man', 'Ghost Dog', 'Broken Flowers' and 'Only Lovers Survive' prove this - but his previous work, 2019's 'The Dead Don't Die', was very weak and there was undoubtedly a certain curiosity mixed with expectation and concern for this new project.

However, it only takes a few minutes of 'Father Mother Sister Brother' to find oneself perfectly immersed in Jarmusch's poetics, through narratives of relationships marked by incommunicability, irony and a great deal of melancholy.

The three stories are separate, but nevertheless linkable thanks to numerous internal references and narrative crossings of words and situations.

There is certainly nothing too new in a feature film full of gimmicks that are already very present in the director's filmography, but the film works nonetheless for its ability to speak with great depth about today's relationships.

If the first episode is the most ironic, in the second an afternoon tea with a mother and two daughters turns into a situation so paradoxical as to be tragic, while in the third two twins try to grieve for their recently deceased parents.

The result is a small film that succeeds in talking about important things, thanks to the writing ability of an author capable of treating such complex existential themes with great delicacy.

The cast includes Charlotte Rampling, Tom Waits, Vicky Krieps, Adam Driver and Cate Blanchett, among others.

The highly anticipated 'The Wizard of the Kremlin' by Olivier Assayas, based on the novel of the same name by Giuliano da Empoli, was also presented in competition.

Set in Russia, in the early 1990s, the film is about a country trying to rebuild itself after the collapse of the Soviet Union and focuses on Vadim Baranov, a brilliant young man who is trying to find his way. First an avant-garde artist, then a reality show producer, he becomes spin doctor to a former KGB agent on the rise: Vladimir Putin.

Il mago del Cremlino

Scripted by Olivier Assayas together with Emmanuel Carrère, the film is a tight political thriller inspired by the chronicle of Putin's rise and what happened in the years following his rise to power.

A solid example of committed cinema, 'The Wizard of the Kremlin' is a well-written and extremely engaging product, thanks to the rhythm of the editing and a series of reflections that go beyond politics and history to reason instead about the manipulation of the media and the disturbing force that a simple idea of communication can develop.

A powerful work, thanks also to the good performances of the entire cast: Paul Dano plays the protagonist, while Jude Law is a very credible Vladimir Putin.