A light-hearted film about a man who loses his wife and shows up unannounced on his daughter’s doorstep is set to open the Maple Ridge Festival of B.C. Film, taking place this weekend.
“He loses his wife and he gets lost. He’s kind of walking the earth, confused and doesn’t really know what to do. He recognizes he’s lost and kind of gravitates towards his daughter, who he’s not that close with,” explained writer and director Robert Wenzek.
She doesn’t really want him there, said Wenzek, but her roommates invite him to stay and he soon becomes the life of the party.
Wenzek describes the film as more drama than comedy, and was inspired by a nightmare he had when his wife went overseas for a research project, leaving him with his daughter at home.
“I had this nightmare where I was living with a bunch of my students and I woke up in a cold sweat and I said, ‘Oh, that’s funny.’ So that became the core of the story,” said Wenzek.
He wrote the first draft of The Prodigal Dad in 2014, then refined it before it went to camera in 2015.
He only finished the movie at the end of 2017 and it made it’s premiere at the Whistler Film Fest in December.
Wenzek has been working in the film industry for almost 20 years as an educator, writer and editor. But this is the first time he has directed a feature film, fulfilling a lifelong dream.
“This is a longer journey and I think part of it is keeping track of the characters, where they’re at. What’s the tone throughout the whole film,” Wenzek said about the difficulty of working on a feature-length film.
Part of the idea of making the film was to see how his crew could still work at their day jobs while filming.
“Instead of just battening down and going straight through, we shot three days a week and just kind of juggled around our schedule to accommodate for different people’s requirements,” said Wenzek.
For example, one of the stars, Andrea Bang, was auditioning for the CBC sitcom Kim’s Convenience while they were filming.
“So we had to reschedule a bunch of stuff because they wanted to fly her out to Toronto for some tests,” Wenzek said.
The Prodigal Dad was also made on a shoestring budget of $16,000.
Wenzek hopes the film tugs at the heartstrings.
”Hopefully, they laugh a little, giggle a little. The film is kind of a film that goes into that place that deals with grieving a bit,” said Wenzek.
He added the movie is ultimately about taking stock of your life and the choices that you have in front of you.
“That life is short and anything can happen,” he said.
