An acclaimed designer discovers his father’s terrible secret in a fashion thriller by an Oscar nominee Xavier Legrand.
Ellias Barnes (Marc-André Grondin) is barely in his thirties but has become the head of a famous fashion house in Paris. His daily life consists of catwalks, meetings with influential people, and constant attention from the press. When his father suddenly dies, nobody else in his family wants to settle his affairs, so Ellias travels to Montreal to organize the funeral of a parent he has not seen for years.
In his second feature, actor and director Xavier Legrand continues to explore family trauma and its toxic influence on our lives. Marc-André Grondin is brilliant in the role of a person who has buried an important part of himself in order to start his life from scratch. The motivation of the protagonist, who is trying to repair the horrible consequences of his biological father’s behavior, is not always clear. Does he genuinely want to make amends or is it all about saving his career? In this uncomfortable but psychologically accurate film there are more questions than answers, and Xavier Legrand invites the viewer to untangle different aspects of human insecurity.
The Successor
Director: Xavier Legrand France, Canada, Belgium, 2023.
112 min. 18+