Family Man (Kalani Gacon) Nepal, Australia |

Family Man
Kalani Gacon
Nepal, Australia. 2025. 17 min

During a storm in a remote Nepalese village, a mysterious man finds refuge in the house of a family haunted by their father’s disappearance years before. Strangely unwilling to leave, he slowly reawakens lost memories of the missing father.

KALANI GACON

Kalani Gacon is an award-winning filmmaker from the beautiful small, misty town of Katoomba, Australia. Since he was a teenager, he has been living and working in Nepal as a social worker and filmmaker, where he has developed a unique cross-cultural voice, telling stories about the intersection of the East and West.
Kalani has made films across 4 continents, including a chapter working on Hollywood productions: Disney’s ‘Upside Down Magic’, and the TV series ‘Riverdale’.
His recent film ‘The Sound of Dreaming’ (2022) has screened at over 30 international film festivals, including the Oscar- qualifying Melbourne International Film Festival, LA-Shorts, Busan International Short Film Festival, and winning the Jury Special Mention Award at the prestigious Oldenburg International Film Festival. Family Man is Kalani’s 5th film produced in Nepal.

DIRECTOR´S NOTE

Family Man tells the story of a family whose father went missing 10 years ago without an explanation. When suddenly a stranger appears in their home on the day of a big storm, the family is left to unravel the mystery of who this man is and what he is doing there.
Like many others, I grew up in a home without a father, and as a child used to imagine what would happen one day if our father magically came home. Could some greater power grant such a wish? What if the wishes of another family were mixed up with my own and the wrong man was sent back? Family Man explores this surreal and emotionally delicate place. After living in the Nepali village of ‘Gorsyang’ in Nuwakot for 9 years on-and-off, I have experienced first-hand the way that outward labour migration pulls families apart for the best part of their lives, many of whom never come back. I have chosen to set my film in a neighbouring village and in the local dialect of the Tamang language to pay homage to the stories of families whose fathers never returned home and the families who wished for an alternate reality and capture this beautiful language on screen while it is still being spoken.

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