Portrait of a Confused Father

In the highly unusual Portrait of a Confused Father, Norwegian documentary maker Gunnar Hall Jensen follows his son Jonathan for twenty years, from the moment he was born. What began as a loving project by a father to capture and preserve the bond with his son turns into an account of loss and open doubt about his own abilities as a father. 

As Jonathan grows up and searches for his place in the world, he loses his grip on reality and becomes increasingly entangled in today's world of hyper-masculinity and empty promises of quick financial success. This world full of toxic role models pushes him beyond Gunnar's reach. Gunnar Hall Jensen's heart-wrenching fifth film is an all-out portrait of love, the complexity of parenthood, the lack of a role model, and a father's search for connection with his son in a rapidly changing world. 

Previous films by Gunnar Hall Jensen are also, in a sense, self-portraits of the filmmaker, in which his personal reflections on life touch on recognisable struggles. In Portrait of a Confused Father, he is more open than ever. A twenty-year project with a tragic ending: three weeks before he wanted to finish the film, he received news that his son had died. Nevertheless, he completed the film, which he saw as his duty to Jonathan. The film premiered this spring at the CPH:DOX festival in Copenhagen and was subsequently screened at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund. The screening at the Northern Film Festival is the Dutch premiere.