Daddy ISSUES

After his Oscar-winning dementia drama The Father, Florian Zeller knew exactly where to go next. A family saga that'll leave you shocked or sobbing, THE SON is a further deep dive into mental health. Total Film meets him and his stellar cast for a tear-strewn chat...

- JAMES MOTTRAM

When Florian Zeller made his 2020 movie The Father, he found himself in that enviable position for a director: hot. Based on his 2012 play, The Father’s almost-unbearable story of dementia was nominated for six Oscars, winning two – for Zeller and co-screenwriter Christopher Hampton, and for Anthony Hopkins, devastating in the lead role. But rather than be swayed by lucrative offers, the French-born Zeller was determined to see out a long-held ambition.

“I had a plan,” he says. “I didn’t take the time to question what I want to do next… it was obvious that it was the film I wanted to make…” That film is The Son. Again inspired by one of his plays, once more the subject is mental health. Sitting with Total Film in a gloomy windowless boardroom in a Mayfair hotel, the bearded, blue-eyed Zeller says, rather cryptically, it was “personal reasons” that drew him to the subject matter of depression. “It’s not my story in terms of characters and situation,” he says. “It’s more about emotions, things that I know, things that I have experienced. I know that so many people are connected to this kind of issue.” Even when the play was first produced in Paris, people queued up after performances to share their experiences on the topic.