“I’ve been looking for my father for 47 years now,” says Ethiopian Daniel Hoek, whose grappling with his half-Dutch identity drives this absorbing story. Daniel’s relationship with his half brother in the Netherlands brings him closer to the answers he seeks, but their father’s own fraught family relationships have an enduring grip on the present. In tour-de-force cross-cut sequences, the characters recount how they first met and their feelings toward their respective fathers. Romance, politics, and family dynamics tighten the film’s coiled plotline. How does Daniel’s situation shine a light on the Ethiopian experience of European resource extraction? And how does Daniel’s checkered past intrude on his reliability as the narrator? As the storytelling gains momentum, The Bastard’s imaginative cinematography and multilayered characters keep the surprises coming.  NK