If I Go Will They Miss Me

Set in Los Angeles, this lyrical American indie follows a boy whose imagination is fuelled by the myths of flight, the planes soaring overhead and his father, recently released from prison.

Director
Walter Thompson-Hernández
Starring
Bodhi Dell, J. Alphonse Nicholson, Danielle Brooks, Kelvin Adekunle, Bre-Z
Country
United States
Languages
English
Subtitles
English
Age limit
K12
Duration
92 min
Keywords
Urban spaces, Family ties, Coming of age, Childhood

Big Ant (J. Alphonse Nicholson), recently released from prison, returns home to his wife Lozita (Danielle Brooks) and their three children. During his absence his only son, Lil Ant (Bodhi Dell), has grown into a creative and sensitive boy, who is mesmerised by Greek mythology and aeroplanes flying over their neighbourhood. Desperately in need of a rolemodel, Lil Ant equates his father, whom he regards as a hero, to the god Poseidon, and imagines himself as the winged horse Pegasus. While licking his own wounds, Big Ant is not able to respond to his son’s tentative attempts to get closer, instead ordering his son to man up. However, a hidden bond between father and son begins to take shape, when they both start seeing the same ghostly vision of boys wandering around the neighbourhood.

Based on a Sundance Film Festival award-winning short film, If I Go Will They Miss Me takes a gentle look at family bonds wounded by intergenerational trauma, parenthood, and the search for identity. Its lyrical narration moves effortlessly between everyday drama and magical realism, as Lil Ant attempts to explain the complex reality that he is experiencing through the power of the imagination.

Ida Kumpulainen (translated by Herman Tikkanen)

Screenings

  • Kinopalatsi 1
    Fri 18.9. at 16.45–18.17
    92 min, 1/3
  • Gilda 1
    Sat 26.9. at 18.30–20.02
    92 min, 2/3
  • Kinopalatsi 1
    Sun 27.9. at 21.00–22.32
    92 min, 3/3
Year
2026
Distributor
Salaud Morisset
Links

Trailer