In Jimpa, Olivia Colman plays an Australian filmmaker, Hannah, determined to make an autobiographical drama “without conflict”. Everyone around her is (rightfully) suspicious. Her father, Jim (John Lithgow), came out as gay after she was born and chose to stay with the family to co-parent, only to leave Adelaide around a decade later, feeling stifled by the culture and wanting to pursue a career as an LGBT+ politician and Aids advocate in Amsterdam.
Hannah wants to make a film that celebrates what she views as a necessary act of self-liberation, even if her voice wavers when she adds that it’s also about a “daughter learning not to need her father so much”. It’s a striking premise, made all the more striking by the fact that Hannah serves as an autobiographical stand-in for the film’s writer and director Sophie Hyde, who’s cast her child, Aud Mason-Hyde, as their own stand-in, Hannah’s kid Frances.
