12/03/2024 - In his most personal film to date, Spaniard Adrián Silvestre broaches subjects such as the complexity of family ties and the right to a dignified death

May Your Will Be Done, the fourth feature directed by Barcelona-based Valencian helmer Adrián Silvestre (My Emptiness and I [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adrián Silvestre
film profile], Sediments [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adrián Silvestre
film profile]), enjoyed its world premiere last week during the 26th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival (7-17 March), in the Newcomers competition. It will have its Spanish bow at DocsBarcelona in May.

The non-fiction film hinges on Ricardo, a former bon vivant. This whimsical and somewhat sarcastic hedonist sees his life collapse when he loses his partner and suffers two strokes that leave half of his body paralysed. Alone, blind in one eye and struggling to move, he slips into a state of depression and anxiety that he can only manage to drag himself out of thanks to the occasional shot of whisky. Wallowing in irreversible physical and mental pain, he believes that death is the only solution to his problems. But before bidding farewell to this world, he would like to make one of his dreams come true: to see his two sons again – after they severed ties with him more than 20 years ago – before it’s too late.

Adrián, his youngest son (Silvestre himself), has his doubts about voluntarily reuniting with his father, but after the insistent pleas of his sister Susana, he ends up agreeing: thus, he embarks on a voyage laden with mixed emotions and portrays the whole experience through this film. The process of repairing and rebuilding broken family ties will turn this family’s emotional journey into a bittersweet tale that talks about the complexity of the relationships between parents and children, redemption, acceptance and the need to recognise the right of every human being to decide how to end his or her own life.

Adrián Silvestre (Valencia, 1981) made his feature-length directorial debut with The Objects of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (2016), which was premiered at the Seville European Film Festival, where it scooped the FIPRESCI Award. He then helmed the documentary Sediments (2021), which took part in numerous festivals and went home with the Feroz Award. The following year, he released his fiction title My Emptiness and I (premiered in the Big Screen competition at IFFR and winner of the Special Jury Prize at Málaga); both of the latter titles revolved around trans people.

May Your Will Be Done is a film staged by Producciones del Barrio, Nanouk Films and Atresmedia Cine, which secured backing from the ICAA and ICEC. Laura Collado, Sergi Cameron and Rosa Pérez serve as its executive producers.

Check out our exclusive poster below:

(Translated from Spanish)