Jim Jarmusch’s latest film, Father Mother Sister Brother, will officially open the Lisbon Film Festival on November 7. Awarded the Golden Lion at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, the film marks the return of the American auteur with a meditation on family ties, time, and solitude.
Conceived as a triptych, the film tells three stories exploring the relationships between grown children and their distant — or absent — parents. Each chapter unfolds in the present day, across different settings: “Father” in the northeastern United States, “Mother” in Dublin, and “Sister Brother” in Paris.
Jarmusch weaves a series of intimate, quiet portraits, infused with subtle melancholy and delicate humor. Rather than judgement, there is observation; instead of drama, the calm rhythm of life passing by.
The international press has praised the film’s poetic force. The website The Playlist, which rated it 75/100, wrote:
«The film exists outside of boundaries of “good” or “bad.” It’s just true, which makes it scarier in many ways. The melancholy doesn’t just live inside Jarmusch’s world. It leaps off the screen and demands to be felt.»
With Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling and Cate Blanchett, Father Mother Sister Brother promises an opening worthy of the festival’s tradition, reaffirming Jarmusch’s vision as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary cinema.