Documentary in which actress and film-maker Sarah Polley sets out on an exploration of her family tree. But as Polley conducts interviews with family and friends, unexpected information comes to light about the marriage of her father and her mother, who died when she was 11 years old.
Having set a successful acting career aside to move behind the camera, Canada's Sarah Polley turns to her own family history for this engrossing documentary portrait of seriously unusual domestic circumstances. It had long been an in-family joke that Sarah didn't look much like her siblings, but what did that say about her parents' marriage? The film finds her trying to make sense of a situation further complicated by her mother's untimely death, as she pieces together revealing interviews, grainy vintage footage and a spoken narration from her father, Michael. His involvement has us wondering just whose version of the truth we're getting - something that proves increasingly difficult to answer as this startling chronicle unfolds. In human terms, it's fascinating to see such complex emotions unpicked, yet Polley also manages to highlight the uncertainties in her own film-making methods and motives as she goes along. Intimate, thought-provoking and affecting, this is exceptional on every level.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Sarah Polley | Sarah Polley |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Sarah Polley |
