UK Premiere

My son, My Son

Werner Herzog/ USA, Germany/ 2009/ 90 mins

“Some act a role, others play a part…” Werner Herzog’s latest film, co-written with Herbert Golder and produced by David Lynch, invites us into a haunting and absurd world where the Greek mythologies that make up so much of our raison d’être are played out. Laced in religious, natural and technological imagery, Herzog continues to question the mechanical world and our human roots.

Told in a retrospective style, My Son, My Son starts with Brad’s (Michael Shannon) murder of his mother (Grace Zabriskie). Around his home the police gather while Detective Hank Havenhurst (Willem Dafoe) learns about the preceding months of Brad’s life from fiancée Ingrid (Chloë Sevigny) and theatre director Lee Meyers (Udo Kier).

With the whole cast on top form and Herzog’s trademark camera work using that uncompromising long shot with new a Lynchian edge, My Son, My Son spans exaggerated melodrama and ritualised symbolism to powerful effect. The fact Brad was rehearsing for a production of the Oresteia, in the title role, gives his actions a predestined feel, but as his story comes together like a fractured mosaic the hazy gap between delusion and profundity narrows. Freeing ourselves from the constraints of society and rekindling our relationship with the primal self and the voice of our Grecian ancestors as Brad does, is perhaps one of the only ways we can truly investigate the essence of humanity. By attempting to live in repression, we are doomed to the life of Tantalus, to be tantalised and never satisfied, it seems that Herzog is offering a response to the way of the machine, and an answer to what being trapped by the artificial leads to when another way of life is offered.

Showing @ Filmhouse 25th June 17:55