Melancholy Masterpiece

The Australian mainstream release of In My Father’s Den has seen writer/director Brad McGann dubbed “NZ’s answer to Ken Loach.” Features in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age focus on the humble manner in which McGann overcame his “new kid on the block status” to create a masterpiece of NZ film. So far, In My Father’s Den has won the International Federation of Film Critics prize at Toronto and the Youth Jury Prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain. It also made the cover of Australia’s Inside Film October edition, which described it as simply “superb.” “What was wonderful about In My Father’s Den was that it was like coming back to a little patch of land in NZ,” says McGann in The Age. “When you start digging in your own soil, it’s interesting how satisfying it is to realise the wealth of material you become conscious of.”