SPOTLIGHT: EWAN MCGREGOR Seymour "Swede" Levov (Ewan McGregor) seems destined to have it all: A sports star in high school, he marries a beauty (Jennifer Connelly), fathers a child, and settles in rural bliss while continuing to run his father's successful New Jersey manufacturing business. But then the placid 1950s evolve into the roiling 1960s. As young Americans question the status quo, as the Vietnam War rages, as the civil rights movement evolves, destiny shifts and his perfect life begins to unravel. His increasingly politicized teenage daughter Merry (Dakota Fanning) becomes involved with an underground group and disappears after being implicated in a bombing. Swede struggles to find meaning as he searches for his lost daughter—whose own journey into the depths is portrayed with impressive nuance by Fanning. Ewan McGregor's directorial debut, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Philip Roth novel, is driven by performances that embody the poignancy of human frailties struggling to navigate those turbulent times.
Our Spotlight program will feature an onstage conversation with Ewan McGregor, a screening of American Pastoral, and the presentation of the MVFF Award in recognition of his auspicious directorial debut. Join us after the program for a celebratory reception at Il Fornaio in Corte Madera.