Romulus, My Father

I had been looking forward to this film for some time as a fan of Australian cinema, Eric Bana and actor turned first-time director Richard Roxburgh and I must say I was not let down in the least.

A thoughtful and moving film, “Romulus, My Father” is a true story based on the memoir of Australian philosopher Raimond Gaita. Growing up in Australia as a Romanian immigrant, the young Raimond exists in a world inbetween childhood and adulthood, caring for his depressed mother, his father, his mother’s new husband and their daughter. Sounds complicated and unusual? It is, but it’s also profoundly moving.

Romulus (Eris Bana) is the patriarch of the family a man who is unable to integrate his world in Romania with his new life in Australia. Christie (Franka Potente) is Rai’s mother: disappointed with her life as an immigrant, vacant, and struggling to hold onto her sanity. The film unfolds exactly like a child’s memory would- it’s not always linear, with fragments and bits and pieces of information missing. It is told from a child’s perspective as he experiences birth, death, separation, trauma and everything else that comes with growing up in the Australian outback.

While Bana and Potente are haunted and moving as a fractured couple caught up in memories and the past, the real star of the film is newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee as Raimond. He appears in almost every frame of film and manges to hold his own against the unsettling and intense performances from the more-established actors on screen. The film unfolds slowly but the performances are better for it as there are no distractions in what is surprisingly an uplifting film.