Jim Jarmusch’s new road movie will be shot in France

By Alexis Thibault.

Cate Blanchett and Adam Driver, stars of Jim Jarmusch’s latest film

He is the filmmaker behind major works, such as Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Dead Man (1995), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), the exquisite Paterson (2016) starring Adam Driver, The Dead Don’t Die (2019), and Gimme Danger(2016), a two-hour-plus documentary on Iggy & The Stooges.

Six years after his zombie feature The Dead Don’t Die, Jim Jarmusch is coming back to the big screen with a poetic, three-act puzzle slated for release in January 2026. Simply titled Father Mother Sister Brother and co-produced by Saint Laurent, the film explores generational rifts, spanning from the misty shores of the United States to the streets of Dublin and the grey elegance of Paris.

The cast includes Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, and Indya Moore, who bring life to this intimate fresco. A family odyssey that had secured a spot in the official selection of the 2025 Venice Film Festival, a few months after it was rumoured to premiere in Cannes, where it received the Lion d’Or.

The project of a road movie filmed in France

News came out that the filmmaker will be making his upcoming road movie in France. But what one element really stands out. In an interview with David Cronenberg for Interview Magazine, Jim Jarmusch shared his intention to permanently distance himself from Hollywood. “From now on, my new films will be shot in France. In fact, I’m trying to get a French passport. Filmmaking in the U.S. has become restrictive, stressful, and quite painful,” he admitted, both clear-eyed and disillusioned.

A film star in concert in Paris

Beyond his signature refined soundtracks, Jim Jarmusch is also a musician. The American filmmaker has spent several decades experimenting with sound, notably through his band Sqürl, whose first EP, EP #1 (Naked Kiss Music), was released in 2010. The project was founded alongside Carter Logan.

Think drone rock, post-rock, ambient built on buzzing tones, distorted guitars, and hypnotic loops. Strongly influenced by krautrock — the psychedelic progressive rock that emerged in Germany in the late 1960s — Sqürl thrives on loops. The group’s music is often instrumental and steeped in dissonant harmonies. One example is the soundtrack of Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), which features their music.

In July 2025, the director went back on stage in Paris with a more minimalist and mystical project – a duo with lutenist Jozef Van Wissem. A far cry from Sqürl’s post-rock imagery, this collaboration expresses a shared fascination with suspended time, sonic meditation, and baroque atmospheres…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaE2leaznC0

A surprising duo with Jozef Van Wissem

The pairing may seem unexpected. Jim Jarmusch and Dutch lutenist Jozef Van Wissem champion minimalist, sharp, and repetitive compositions. Their music revolves around the Renaissance lute and dissonant layers. Verging on drone at times, the whole is giving an almost liturgical dimension to the composition.

Their collaboration is notably marked by albums like The Mystery of Heaven (2012) and An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil (2019), both introspective journeys. Jim Jarmusch’s obsession with soundscapes stems from his belief that music lies at the heart of cinema.

From Tom Waits to RZA and Iggy Pop, Jim Jarmusch has always placed musicians at the center of his films, working with them as true creative partners. Since his debuts, he has conducted his films like musical scores, weaving together terse dialogue and eloquent silences with a natural sense of rhythm. In Dead Man with Johnny Depp, for instance, Neil Young’s erratic guitar guides the film’s hallucinatory and poetic journey.

Father Mother Sister Brother by Jim Jarmusch, coming out in theatres on January 7th, 2026.