by James Mottram
A story that does a total 180-degree turn is, for most directors, absolute gold dust. “That’s one of the things that really, really attracted me,” remarks Argentinian director Pablo Trapero (The Clan), talking about the script for his new film & Sons, the first English-language feature of his career. “You are reading it and you feel like it’s going to be a family portrait. And then you have these twists that change things dramatically.”
Indeed, rarely has a movie twist so radically changed the story in a direction you just weren’t expecting. Adapted from the novel by David Gilbert by Sarah Polley, the Oscar-winning actress-turned-writer-director (Women Talking, Stories We Tell), the story begins in the company of acclaimed author A.N. Dyer (Bill Nighy), who lives with his youngest son Andy (Noah Jupe) and their Swedish maid (Anna Geislerová) in a plush home in rural Britain.
Under the belief that he is dying and concerned about his legacy, Dyer has summoned his older sons – budding screenwriter Richard (Johnny Flynn) and Jamie (George MacKay), a fine artist currently toying with documentary filmmaking. Estranged from both after divorcing their mother Isabel (Imelda Staunton), with rumours of infidelities on his side, Dyer has a scarcely believable revelation to land on them, involving Andy’s origins.
Suffice it to say, this portrait of an artist moves into terrain that might be called science fiction, not unlike the novels with which Dyer has made his name with (the impression given, at least from the framed posters of his book jackets adorning his walls, is that he’s a writer in the mould of Solaris author Stanislaw Lem).
Perhaps ‘science fact’ might be a better way to describe the story of & Sons, which moves into a philosophical terrain that Trapero responded to when he read the script. “This is related to some of my previous movies, which is the constant questions that we ask ourselves that starts from ‘Where are we coming from?’ And, of course, the next question is, ‘Where do we go?’”
If anything, & Sons comes across less as a story about science fiction and more about identity. All of Dyer’s troubled offspring are trying to formulate exactly who they are in the shadow of their revered father. Flynn’s writer, in particular, is being schmoozed by a slimy Hollywood producer (Dominic West), who is basically using him to get his father to grant the rights to Saturn’s Salute, one of Dyer’s most celebrated books.
Then there’s MacKay’s wannabe documentarian. “He’s more of an artist that uses videos and new media,” explains Trapero. “You can tell with his study that he does sculpture or painting or whatever. So, as he says to his brother – Johnny’s character – when he first arrived, ‘I’m exploring a new media, right?’ He’s somewhere trying to figure out who he is.”
With such a distinguished British cast involved, it’s no surprise to learn just how delighted Trapero was. “One of the biggest joys on this project, in particular, was the work with the actors,” he says. “Because, as you can tell, it’s all about performances.”
He credits Nina Gold, the hugely experienced casting director who came on halfway through the project, helping flesh out the ensemble. “I mean, you couldn’t ask for better.”
Despite the sci-fi/fact element of the story, Trapero set about exploring the characters hand-in-hand with his actors, with a three camera set-up and long takes dominating his approach. “Some scenes were attached to every little comma on the screenplay. Some others were open to improvisation. I kept changing my proposal on the day, just to keep it fresh and to have this flow,” he says.
“I’m a crazy tennis fan, right?” he continues. “And there is this lesson that you are being told in the first tennis class. You cannot control anything but your actual ball. Not the one that just passed, not the next one, but the one you are hitting at the very moment in the present. And believe it or not, I use that when talking to the actors about creating the art for a particular performance on a particular scene. We were always focused on these lines that you are saying right now, and then we will work on the next one, and then on the following one.”
Working with such acclaimed actors – on a film that deals with the future – begs the question of what Trapero thinks about AI in filmmaking. Is he worried? “I’m not really sure I’m worried. I’m trying to be always optimistic, because our industry is in crisis from… forever!” he laughs, pointing out that ever since the talkies arrived to call time in the silent era of moviemaking, there’s always been something to concern us in cinema.
“You can keep adding examples like when TV arrived, then 3D arrived, then streaming arrives. So, there’s always things that are changing our language, our movie making language, but comparing to other arts, moviemaking is related with technology from day one. So, without technology, you don’t have movies. I believe that we will find a way – tools that we will use to our advantage, and not the opposite.”
& Sons opens in cinemas on 27 August 2026. Read our review of the film here.
