American Pastoral

20 years after his breakthrough in Trainspotting, and after a long line of other significant roles, Ewan McGregor makes his debut as a director. American Pastoral is based on an award-winning novel by Philip Roth, one of the most acclaimed living authors in the United States. McGregor’s debut is a riveting cinematic drama about the complex conflicts of America’s recent past.

McGregor stars as the businessman Seymour «The Swede» Levov, who during the 1960s creates a home in New Jersey with his wife – former beauty queen Dawn – and their daughter Merry. We are introduced to a small family at a moment in American history when the country was on the brink of a period defined by the Vietnam War and an intensifying racial tension. While Seymour becomes increasingly more successful, an interest in politics is sparked in Merry, and slowly she is radicalized and pushes her family away in the process. The breakup of her parents and a society falling apart becomes too much for her to handle.

American Pastoral is a modern tragedy about a family and a society that is falling apart, and about a father’s desperate attempt to reunite with his lost daughter. The setting, a United States riddled with internal conflict, makes the film even more relevant as a reflection of the state of the country still today. MWV

Ewan McGregor (b. 1971) isa Scottish actor, and now director,made his debut in the British TV series Lipstick on Your Collar in 1993. His real breakthrough was Danny Boyle's Trainspotting (1996), and he later became worldfamous in the role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars-prequels (1999-2005). American Pastoral is McGregors debut as a director.