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Like Father (UK Premiere)
Amber Collective, Joe Armstrong, Ned Kelly, Jonathon Dent, Anna Gascoigne - UK - 2001 - 98m - 35mm - drama
In English
North East England, a landscape of desolate beauty where environment and communities alike have been ravaged first by the coal industry and then by its subsequent demise. Joe, an ex-miner approaching his fortieth birthday, just about scrapes a living promoting club acts of dubious talent, whilst finding the only outlet for his own considerable musical skills lies in teaching. His troubled relationship with his wife and son seems to be following a pattern familiar from his own childhood. Joe's father has his own problems, trying to rally his friends to resist the attempts of the local council to redevelop the land on which the former pitmen have their allotments and pigeon lofts. With an admirable feel for the fabric of the everyday, the film offers a refreshing and frequently funny alternative to some recent interpretations of working class life, never patronising its characters or their lives. The broad sweep of the landscape is counterbalanced by the narrative focus on family relationships, in which tensions between grandfather, father and son touch on a host of wider issues. The result is powerful, evocative stuff that will exercise hearts and minds alike.
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