When Ned Rifle turns 18, he decides to leave the witness protection programme and kill his father Henry. His father is responsible for having put Ned’s mother Fay in prison where she is now doing life for treason. Ned’s foster father, who has encouraged him to become a Christian, is not at all happy about his plans, and Ned’s uncle is also concerned. But then Ned meets Susan, a lipstick and literature fanatic, who knows a surprising amount about Ned’s family’s doings.
The final part in Hal Hartley’s trilogy about the Grims is a tale of revenge, failure and family ties that makes good use of Hartleyesque signature irony and absurd humour.
"In the years I wrote Fay Grim my main interest was to convey something of the weirdness of American life after 9/11 and our new espionage-laden reality. In those years reading all the newspapers was like reading a spy novel or a political thriller. It occurred to me that Fay –minimally educated, naturally intelligent, basically decent, but habitually incurious and hilariously uniformed –would be the perfect representative American to tangle up in the vicious and irrational spasms of international relations. That decided, I knew I would have to make a third film somewhere down the line to be centered on Henry and Fay’s son, Ned." (Hal Hartley)
Hal Hartley
Born on Long Island, New York in 1959, Hartley studied at the State University of New York before starting to write screenplays and making short films. At the age of 33 Hartley made his feature debut with The Unbelievable Truth. His tragicomedy Henry Fool won Best Screenplay at Cannes in 1998. Hal Hartley is recognised as a trailblazer of independent American cinema.
filmography (selection)
1988 The Unbelievable Truth
1990 Trust
1991 Ambition (short)
1992 Surviving Desire
1992 Simple Men
1993 Amateur
1995 Flirt
1997 Henry Fool
1998 The Book Of Life
2004 The Girl From Monday
2006 Fay Grim
2013 My America
2014 Ned Rifle
