Film still of Blood Father © Why not production - Wild bunch
Blood Father, Mel Gibson is ready for anything out of paternal love
The French director Jean-François Richet, to whom we owe Ma 6-T va crack-er (1997), Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) and the saga Mesrine (2008), is in Cannes for the first time with his new feature film Blood Father, a thriller starring Mel Gibson, portraying the crazed love of a father for his daughter in a violent setting. Midnight Screening Out of Competition.
Blood Father tells the story of 17 year-old Lydia and her somewhat bewildered father, John Link, an outlaw ex-biker and habitual offender, who go on the run after she has been the victim of a crime by her drug-dealing boyfriend. Link is forced to reconnect with a past he's sought to put behind him in order to save his daughter…
Based on the novel by Peter Craig, Jean-François Richet's characters are slowly unveiled in this savage, instinctual and atavistic struggle in the depths of the American desert. Link, whose choices are driven by his unconditional love for his daughter, delivers the combat of a lifetime, in which he gives his all to protect his offspring. The film explores the themes of transmission, survival, emancipation, love and sacrifice for your loved ones – positive values that are increasingly rare in a world governed by vested interests, in which no kind of trafficking is barred. To play the iconic father, the director called on Mel Gibson, whom he considers "one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers.”
I’ve rarely worked with anyone so humble and centred. Mel has an incredible sense of dramatic art
Known as a director for Braveheart (1995), five-times Oscar winner for his action roles in the sagas Mad Max and Fatal Weapon, in Blood Father, Mel Gibson once again emerges as a hero whose very raison d'être lies in the fight against evil.
