My Father's Secrets

A Belgium boy is haunted by his father’s refusal to reveal his past as a Holocaust survivor, in this sensitive post-war coming-of-age animated tale of generational trauma and healing. Michel is a typical 12-year-old, an occasional misfit with a budding interest in girls, often irritated by his tagalong younger brother. He has little grasp of his Jewish heritage or his reclusive, at times gruff father who retreats inward, toiling away over a mysterious diary. As the silence deepens the gulf between father and son, familial friction culminates in a long overdue reckoning. Elliott Gould voices the titular father, with lustrous 2D animation capturing the spirit of illustrator Michel Kichka’s autobiographical graphic novel on which the film is based.