recente releases

ALT OM MIN FAR (ALL ABOUT MY FATHER)

Even Benestad, Norway 2001, 75 min, documentary, DVD, Norwegian, English subtitles
As a respected physician and well-known Norwegian transvestite, Esben Benestad expected his son’s film to promote him as a colourful character using his time and talents to combat cultural and sexual prejudice. However, it turns out the director has set an all together different goal for his film….

Voted Best Documentary at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival, All About My Father is a highly personal film about Esben Benestad, a well-respected doctor – who also happens to be a transvestite – from a small, Christian town in Norway. The film was directed by the one person most likely to convey the story with truth, warmth, humour and irony: Even Benestad, his son.

A media celebrity in Norway, Esben expected his son’s film to promote him as a colourful character using his time and talents to combat cultural and sexual prejudice. However, the focus of the documentary turns out to be more on the effects that Esben’s transvestism had on his family and his first marriage. Through creatively interweaving intimate archival family footage with present-day interviews, Esben is initially presented as someone who sees his world to be very much ‘all about’ himself. However, by addressing the precarious nature of father-son and familial relationships, this honest and well-paced documentary reveals, in time, the emotional depth and latent humility of a brave and remarkable man and a keener understanding of a flawed father (and bruised son).


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