F “Eugene O’Neill’s – The First Man” – Hardeep Giani, United Kingdom, United States, 2025, 148’

Synopsis: This is the first-ever film adaptation of The First Man – an early and rare story from the pen of Nobel laureate and Pulitzer prize winner, Eugene O’Neill. This psychological romantic drama set in 1920s Connecticut delves into themes of obsession, grief, and betrayal. World-renowned anthropologist Curtis, is consumed by grief over his young daughters’ deaths. He finds solace in immersing himself in preparations for his upcoming expedition to Asia, where he aims to unravel the mystery of “The First Man.” However, he must confront an undercurrent of family conflict as he battles against his relatives’ unsettling suspicions that his wife Martha is carrying his best friend Bigelow’s child. 100 years after it was first published, Pulitzer and Nobel literature award-winning writer Eugene O’Neill’s 1920’s story – ‘The First Man’ has been lovingly crafted as a feature film by a team of UK-based film-makers led by auteur director Hardeep Giani – and this is his very first Feature film. Director and Producer Hardeep Giani explains his vision: “Eugene O’Neill’s incredible script was a pleasure to make into a feature film. What we wanted to do was to make this independent film for a modern audience – to produce a story examining the conflict of love in an environment of social and family prejudice, and how a bereavement can inflict psychosis in a grieving father.”

• Director: Hardeep Giani
• Writer: Eugene O’Neill, Hardeep Giani
• Producer: Hardeep Giani, Matthew Pitts-Tucker
• Key Cast: Vincent Andriano, Charlotte Asprey, Alan Turkington, Rebecca Lee, Josie Kidd, Charlie Roe, Kate Copeland, Richard Emerson – Gould, Martin Laer, Alex Francis, Nesba Crenshaw, Cat Mckeever